Operation: Naruto
by Sentai-Rider Fan
Summary: When a US military base gets teleported to the world of Naruto their arrival will trigger a chain reaction that will change the world forever. With technologies never seen by the shinobis, will they bring security and peace to a world on the brink of war? Or will they ignite a war that is far deadlier and worse then anyone can ever imagine? Please R & R OH HIATUS!
1. Chapter 1

The first thing Pvt. John Bradley heard was a bird chirping, he slowly opened his eyes and groaned, he looked around to see that his bunkmates, Pvt. Jack Johnston and Corporal Adam Lemark, were still asleep, "Damn that was one hell of a night" he muttered to himself remembering that he, Jack and Adam had been out at the bar last night drinking their ass off since it was Friday night and they had the next day off; now he was starting to regret it as he thought he felt a hangover beginning to settle in but just as quickly as it came it was gone, "what the?" he said to himself as he shook his head and found out that he was fine. Not knowing what was happening he decided he must've had less to drink than the others and that in turn didn't have much of a hangover as the others though he was sure to laugh his head off once he saw how Jack and Adam were going to go through.

He exited his dorm and went outside to have a jog like he always does before he gets his duty for the day, he exited to Fort Hood, the largest US military base in the world with almost 50,000 people and personnel on site. It was also home to almost the entire branch of the US military where the Army, Navy, Airforce and Marine Corp all converge into one, ready to move out at a moment's notice, thus it was home to a myriad of vehicles, planes and even battleships and the President once said, "_If some idiot wants to attack Fort Hood…they better bring a damn big army with them_" John chuckled, "God bless America" he said as he warmed up his legs when he actually had a look at his surroundings and almost jumped in shock. (1)

Instead of the busy honks of cars and the lap of the waves all he heard were birds chirping and the waves starting to move, he looked around and all he saw was that the base was in the middle of a forest, not the desert terrain they were used to, he looked behind him and saw the sea with the entire navy armada stationed there and all the vehicles and planes were present so it was as though the entire base had been picked up and just dropped in the middle of this strange place. "What in jumping jack?" a loud voice cried out and Jack turned and saw Col. Robert Burton, the CO of Fort Hood and the highest authority in this base; he had served in Iraq and Afghanistan with his marine unit and had quickly rose through the ladder into becoming the CO of Fort Hood. His stoic face bristled with a beard was etched in confusion and surprise as he looked around him, "where the hell are we?"

John stood to attention and saluted, not sure what to say other than, "Good morning sir" he said.

"And a good morning to you Bradley, but where in God's name are we?" Robert asked.

"Uhm…I have no idea?" John said in an unsure tone.

"Did we have a forest around us?" Robert asked not sure himself.

"No sir" John replied confidently, "we had a desert terrain and the nearest city was 2 klick north of here."

"Sound the alarm we have a major problem then" Robert said as he went back to his office to try and contact any forces in the area.

"Yes sir" John said a bit afraid at the situation, a general alarm meant the Fort was in serious danger and all units were to respond to their battle stations immediately, he took a deep breath and pulled the lever down, instantly a loud siren blared throughout the area as he could hear a flurry of frantic movements as military personnel grabbed weapons, jumped into vehicles, planes and even ships as the base defences were set while at the same time wondering where they were as they were definitely not in Texas.

"John" Adam cried out, his desert terrain uniform on and his M4 slung on his back, "what the hell is happening? Who's attacking us?"

"I have no idea" John said as he jogged to the armoury and grabbed an M4 from the rack before he went to his battle station with Adam where Jack was already on a M249 SAW facing the entrance to the base where it was flanked by two turrets that also contained M16 LMG, "but wherever we are we're definitely not in Texas Toto."

Meanwhile in Konoha things were just as frantic as a whole division of ANBU forces converged in front of a podium where Sarutobi was standing, "Earlier this morning we have been alerted to a large mass of bodies appearing in a small part of the forest near Konoha…we do not know if they are enemy shinobis or simply an anomaly but I want all of you to immediately intercept them and find out if they mean us harm."

"How large are we talking about?" Yamato asked, a more pressing matter was how they were able to slip past their guard and land near Konoha…surely the guards should be doing a better job.

"Estimate puts the number around…" Sarutobi then received a report and dropped his pipe in shock, "50,000!"

"What?" Yamato asked in shock as well, "how did we miss 50,000 shinobis landing near our home?"

"Actually according to our analysis" an ANBU shinobi explained, "apparently there was a large energy reading just earlier this morning before it suddenly disappeared to be replaced by those 50,000 body masses in the area…we believe they may have teleported here though how they managed to do so in such a large number is beyond our understanding."

Yamato just shook his head in complete despair, "50,000…how can we manage to fight that many?" he asked himself.

"Don't worry Yamato-san" Yugao said, "we'll just try our best" she said smiling.

"Please be careful…I have no idea who these people are and I want all of you to return alive" Sarutobi said as he then flicked his wrist indicating that the mission had started as the ANBU quickly shunshined out of Konoha and towards the energy reading though apprehensive of what they would find.

John aimed his M4 at the gate as he awaited an order or, perhaps, an enemy force charging towards them but there was nothing, "John" Adam whispered, "what do we do now?" he asked.

"Wait" John said, "hopefully the brass finds out what the hell is going on and where we are more importantly."

"Half of us are getting bored here" Jack said before he then whispered into his radio, "hey Alice you have anything on that scope of yours?"

Alice, Jack's girlfriend and base sniper, replied, "Negative Jacky…I got nothing…I can't see a damn thing through these trees."

"Okay be careful honey-pie" Jack said with a smile on his face.

"Roger cutie" Alice retorted back.

"Wootie-woot" Jack retorted back.

"Cutie-pie."

"Honey-bee."

"Jacky-pie."

"Alicy."

"Hey you do know all of us can you hear you lovebirds chattering over there" Sgt. Andrew Parks barked out making John and Adam laugh out loud as Alice and Jack muttered an apology.

"Sicked" Adam said, "you got burnt by Parks."

"Shut up" Jack muttered, "Sarge most of us are getting bored here, we've been sitting for an hour and there's been nothing…can we move out?" he asked.

"Jack's right" Alice said, "I'm getting cramped up here and I can't see naught on this scope…instead I'm a sitting duck."

"Negative to both of you" Parks said, "just wait another half hour then I'll have a chat with the Colonel but 'till then everyone's on battle station until I say so."

"Aye, aye sarge" Jack said as he sighed and cocked his M16 LMG, "how did we end up in this situation?"

"I don't know and I don't think I want to know" John said, "for now lets just sit tight."

"Hey isn't Spark supposed to be manning the radar?" Adam asked as John faceslapped himself forgetting that Alex 'Spark' Leung was their communication officer and he would be manning the radar for any enemy attacks.

"Hey Spark do you read me?" John asked through his radio.

"Yeah I read you John but just barely…I'm barely getting a signal here" Alex said.

"Is the radar operational?" John asked.

"Yeah but just a bit" Alex said, "me and the boys have been trying to fix this thing up since the alarm went off but I don't know…I can do it but it'll take a while."

"Keep on it in" John said, "and watch out for enemy forces."

"Roger, will do" Alex said as radio communication went silent once more.

"What time is it?" Jack asked.

John looked at his watch, "10:15" he muttered, "another quarter and we can stretch our legs."

The first thing that Yamato thought when he saw Fort Hood was, 'Oh we are so screwed…' in front of him was a huge city, with buildings and walls set around the entire perimeter, soldiers with strange weapons were guarding the entrance and they looked like they were watching for any sign of danger, "What do we do now?"

"We wait" Yugao said, "I don't like the look of this…they look like they're ready for us."

"But how?" one ANBU soldier asked, "we ourselves just know about those guys…and I've never seen weapons like those before."

"A surprise attack is our best and only option" Yugao said, "tell the others to get ready and when I give the signal start attacking at full force."

"Okay" the ANBU soldier said, "I'll go and-" he never got to finish his words as there was a loud crack and his head burst into a fine red mist, splashing some of the blood on Yugao, before he dropped from the tree branch with a loud 'thud'.

"Oh shit" Yamato exclaimed, "they've found us! All units retaliate now!"

"Enemy soldier confirmed, his on the tree top along with two others…do I have green light to shoot?" Alice asked as all other units cocked their weapons and readied themselves for a fight, she herself peered through Barret M99 Sniper Rifle and aimed it straight at the head of the masked soldier.

"Do they pose a threat?" Parks asked.

"Affirmative…though they're not carrying any guns, all I can see is a sword and that's it."

"A sword?" Adam whispered, "where are we? Medieval Europe?"

"I don't think knights climbed up trees Adam" John said.

"They may have other weapons, all units green light, engage the enemy!" Parks said as Alice confirmed his order and then there was a loud crack and he could clearly hear someone curse before ordering everyone to attack. Instantly 10 soldiers drew their swords and landed right in the middle of the base, only to be instantly shredded to pieces by the M4s and M16 LGW while suddenly a huge flame dragon roared and charged at where John, Adam and Jack was, "move!" John cried out as the trio broke cover and ran full speed toward the nearest cover before the dragon crashed into the emplacement before disappearing.

"What the hell was that?" Adam asked as he blasted a soldier with his M4, "was that a flaming dragon?"

"I don't know" John said, "just keep shooting and we can compare notes later" as he took down two soldiers who were doing something with their hands and he did not want to know what the end result would be, however he was starting to think that he was no longer on Earth and on a different world altogether and that scared him.

However the battle was clearly winning on the US favour as the only weapons these forces used were swords, their weird magic, and small objects he later found were kunais. He saw one soldier go down as a kunai hit him on the shoulder, the masked soldier then jump up and intended to skewer the soldier but a shotgun blast blew his head open and he simply dropped to the ground, the wounded soldier was then dragged by his comrade to a safer place while firing his Smith & Wesson SD9 handgun at whatever enemy soldier he set his sights on. John looked back and saw that the armoured division, airforce and navy were on standby though if need be they could bombard the entire area to rubble and finish off what was left of the enemy forces…however he had to wonder just what kind of warfare these guys were used to since he could see looks of surprise and horror especially on one guy who looked like he was completely in shock by what he was seeing.

It was a complete massacre, the moment Yamato ordered the attack they had lost the battle, 10 ANBUs had dropped on the base only to be instantly shredded by the strange weapons; things went even worse as shinobis after shinobis fell dead, most unable to even finish their jutsus before they were shot, "F-fall back, fall back!" he yelled, "Retreat!" as he slowly backed away from the massacre, the other shinobis didn't need to be told twice, he looked as an explosion echoed and he saw a shinobi fell back, his leg blown off like he had been near an explosive tag, "GET OUT OF HERE!" he screamed as he retreated to a nearby clearing with what shinobis he had left, he landed there and looked at what was left of his forces, by his count 30 men had died, 15 wounded, two of them badly, and a lot of men crushed; some threw off their mask in frustration and threw it to the ground, "we…we couldn't win" he said as Yugao gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"We did the best we could…we should report this to Hokage-sama" she said as Yamoto nodded and the remaining Konoha forces began to slowly return back to their home knowing that they had failed in their mission and that 30 men would not be able to go back to their families.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited my story. I realise now that the US military have jumped the gun when they attacked the shinobis, from now on I will try to not make that kind of mistake again. I hope you enjoy my story, please R & R as always.**

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The President read the report and looked up at the general with a frown on his face, "Is this a joke General Patterson?" he asked, he had just been elected not more than a month ago, and to have this on his plate right now? It was not a good sign.

"No sir" Gen. Patterson replied stoically, "we have confirmed that all of Fort Hood is gone; there isn't a trace of anything, no bodies, no stones not even metal is to be found there…it was as though Fort Hood never existed."

"Never existed?" the President asked sternly, "you're telling me that 50,000 men and women of the armed forces never existed?"

"Well…its not like they're completely erased from history per se" a scientist stammered, "they're still on the registry of the armed forces…they just don't physically exist in this world."

"So where the hell are they?" the President asked.

"To be honest Mr President…" Gen. Patterson said with a worried look on his face, "I have no idea where they are…"

The President shook his head and looked at the scientist, "I was assured that this was nothing more than an experiment…that there would be no side-effects…so tell me why the largest US base in the world is now MIA?" he asked the scientist.

"We're still working on it Mr. President" the scientist said, "we still don't know what happened ourselves…the energy barrier was supposed to only encase the base with an energy field" he demonstrated this by making a dome-like gesture with his hands.

"And that's it? Just 'encase' the base with an energy field…how to shut it off?" the President asked.

"It would then simply retract back into the device and be picked up by a UAV" the scientist said.

"Then what happened?"

"As I said we're still investigating but it seemed the energy field was too unstable and…well in short it collapsed and sent Fort Hood into another dimension."

"Another world you mean?"

"Something like that yes."

The President shook his head in disbelief, "Find a way to bring Fort Hood back, in one piece, now!" he yelled as the scientist jumped and quickly went back to his lab, "this has become a disaster General Patterson…it was you who suggested the idea of the energy field."

"I know sir" Gen. Patterson said, "I'll take full responsibility if anything happens to Fort Hood."

"This is no joke General…I have 50,000 lives out there that are now MIA…what the hell am I supposed to tell the American people? The world?" the President asked pointing to the mass media that had gathered outside the White House and for once the General had nothing to say.

Sarutobi stared in shock at the scene in front of him, moments ago Yamato had stumbled into Konohakagure, defeated and crushed; many of the shinobis were suffering from wounds made by weapons never seen before in his long life even when it was described to him by the few shinobis that were able to take a good look at them. He turned to Yagou and whispered, "How many?"

Yagou looked at Sarutobi with sadness in her face and understanding the question, "30 dead…15 wounded, two of them severely wounded, it was an utter massacre Hokage-sama…most of the dead didn't even have time to finish their jutsus before they were killed by these strange weapons."

"How many enemies are we talking here?" Sarutobi asked.

"I'm not sure…at least 20 attacked us, but there could be more…it was a huge city Hokage-sama…I just simply don't understand how they were able to build such a massive city without us knowing about it."

"Lets not dwell on that for now" Sarutobi said, "get the wounded to the hospital and prepare our defences…we may be heading into another war…" Yugao nodded and began to bark orders as Sarutobi went towards his building with a worried look on his face; how was he going to defend his village against an enemy that used strange weapons that could kill his shinobis within seconds? He shuddered to think what would happen if those people invaded his village, it would be an utter massacre.

"So what the hell do we do now?" John asked as everyone wind down after the assault, if it could even be called an assault, he, Adam and Jack were now milling around the base waiting for their next order from Burton. They had watched as everyone reloaded their weapon, checked equipment…pretty much everything to indicate that they were going to war; however it left a bad taste in John's mouth, those masked soldiers didn't stand a chance against the military…it was obvious that they had never seen weapons such as the M4 or M249 SAW or they had never even fought an enemy like the US military and the way they fought indicated they were expecting a completely different enemy. It was like shooting civilians and he didn't like that one bit.

"We wait until the Colonel has a plan" Sgt. Parks said as he approached the trio, "good work you three, you did well especially escaping that…thing" referring to the flaming dragon.

"Thanks Sarge…so I guess this means we're not on Earth anymore?" Adam asked sheepishly.

"Yeah I guess so…" Parks said as he turned and saw several man stumbling to the medics as kunais and burns were evident from their body while some had sword wounds, "I don't think we're even ready for those guys."

"So we have people who use magic, sword and those small thingies" Jack said, "so…are we screwed or what?"

"I would sympathize with those who try to attack us" John said taking a cigarette and lighting it, "we pretty much demolished a fair bit of their forces…30 dead I heard."

"Yeah" Parks said, "got to go to the Colonel's office for a briefing…you three stay frosty okay?"

"Yes Sarge" the trio said as Alice walked up to them, "hey Alice" John cried out.

Alice smiled as she approached the trio, "Rough morning huh?" she asked.

"Yeah…hell of a wakeup call when John pulled the alarm" Adam admitted, "man I was so sleepy I could've slept through the entire battle and not even know about it."

"And you're dating him?" Jack asked in exasperation to Alice.

Alice chuckled, "Y-yeah…I'm dating…him…" she said rather weakly and then it was then John noticed that everything was not well; Alice's skin was pale and sweaty as her blonde hair was sticking to her forehead and she was taking deep breaths while her face twitched now and again with pain while her sun yellow eyes were glazed and unfocused.

"Hey Alice you okay?" John asked standing up.

"Never better" Alice laughed as she brushed some hair from her eyes as she swayed back and forth.

"You don't look too hot" John said as Alice then suddenly collapsed as John quickly caught him, he then found 3 kunais on her back, "oh shit she's been hit MEDIC!" he yelled as another medic rushed over to them.

"Alice, why didn't you tell anyone?" Adam asked seeing her wounds.

"Three knifes to the back…nothing too major" the medic said as he gestured to his companions to put her on a stretcher, "we'll treat her in the on-base medical site."

"Can I come?" Adam asked and the medic nodded, "I'll see you guys later" Adam said as he jogged alongside Alice comforting her.

"Damn it" Jack said, "I thought Alice was safe."

"Should've been…I hate it when Alice doesn't say anything to us" John said.

"She's a big girl…she probably hates being coddled" Jack said.

"Whatever…" John said as a Global Hawk UAV flew over them, "looks like we're staying…recon's up."

"Let's hope they find something…and don't get shot down while doing so" Jack said, "come on lets get some breakfast into us before we faint" as he patted his friend on the back as they went to the cafeteria to get some food in them.

Master Sergeant Huge Grants was bored out of his mind, he had been using the Global Hawk to explore the region for a good two hours and he's found zip. Nothing at all to indicate an enemy base, or any kind of area where the ones they fought might have come from, it was like they just appeared out of thin air. But seeing what those guys were capable of, bringing out that flaming dragon for instance, he wouldn't put it past them that they had some special power to teleport themselves; hell they could probably teleport themselves right into base if they wanted to, now that was a scary thought. "Hey anything on there?" a female voice said as Huge turned to see his sister Valencia walking in.

"Hey sis, nah nothing, it's like they just vanished after attacking us," Huge said.

"Well they have to come from somewhere, it's not like they can just appear out of thin air," Valencia said though she was thinking the same thoughts her brother was thinking of a minute earlier.

"Well I can't keep doing this, I gotta go back soon, should I call it in?" Huge asked as Valencia frowned.

"Keep going for a few more minutes, if you still see nothing then we'll call it in," Valencia said.

"So anyone we know got hurt?" Huge asked trying to pass the time, they hadn't really talked with each other since they joined the armed forces seeing as how his sister was actually in the Navy while Huge was in the Air Force, they had a difference on which one was better and eventually both of them just stuck with their current branches. But the downside to that was that they rarely see each other at work, if ever, and the only time they meet is during vacation days.

"No, the Army and Marine guys got it all, we Navy and Air Force were in reserve ready to rain down hell if need be," Valencia said as Huge chuckled.

"Oh yes we were weren't we?" Huge said, "Did you see that flaming dragon?"

"Who couldn't? I'm starting to get worried about this whole thing."

"Ah don't worry Val, we got 50,000 soldiers here plus all sorts of US armaments. I wouldn't worry too much about anything," Huge said with a relaxed tone, as Valencia crossed her arms, she was always the more serious out of the two.

"Hey what was that?" Valencia pointed out as Huge jumped into action stopping the UAV, as he turned the UAV to where Valencia indicated, their eyes then widened with what they saw on the screen, "Oh my god," Valencia whispered, "I'm going to get Colonel Burton."

Colonel Burton studied the pictures the UAV had taken before placing it on the table, sitting along with him were the representative of the armed branches excluding the Marine Corp since Burton represented them, "Well what do you think?" he asked.

"I think that it's incredible that they have a city right in the middle of a forest," an Army captain commented, "does this mean that it's possible that there are other cities in the area? And if so then should we be on alert?"

"We don't know if there are other cities in the area, we still have the Global Hawk scouting the area, so until we know more we'll have to assume that this is the only city in the vicinity," Burton replied

"What do we plan to do about them?" a Navy lieutenant asked, "If this is the place where those swordsmen attacked this morning, then they won't be too receiving of us if we go there."

"But at the same time if we simply remain silent then it is inviting them to attack us, it is very likely that they perceive us as a threat to them," the Army captain retorted, "I suggest that we go on a peacekeeping mission, let them know that we mean no threat to them and explain our situation to them."

"Hmm…that is actually a good idea, I'm sure once we explain our action they'll realise that we did this out of self-defence," Burton said.

"However we initiated the fight, we simply _assumed_ that these swordsmen were going to attack us, we had no idea in reality what they would have done," an Air Force captain, "won't they say that we were the ones that attacked without warning?"

"Then you are saying we should just sit here and wait for the next attack? We had the element of surprise this time because of modern weapons, which they seemed to lack, but next time we'll be the ones surprised if they decide to launch a sneak attack," the Army captain.

"If we go on a peacekeeping mission then it's more likely the convoy will be attacked, we can't risk our men on such a mission," the Navy lieutenant retorted as an argument between the Navy, Army, and Air Force erupted as Burton groaned and closed his eyes before he had enough.

"Enough!" he shouted as all three men stopped arguing, "Both sides make valid points, however my number one priority is to make sure my men is safe," as the Army captain opened his mouth before Burton cut in, "however," he said looking at each of the representatives in turn, "the best way we can achieve that is through peace, therefore I agree that we need to send in some sort of message that makes our intent loud and clear, if we are successful in this then we can work something from there."

"Then how are we going to ensure that those swordsmen won't attack us the moment they see us, don't forget their magic that they possess," the Air Force captain said as Burton smiled.

"I think you can help me with that captain," he grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone, this is a small A/N to tell you guys that I will be updating this story every Thursday or Friday from now on. Also I'm a little disappointed that I only got two reviews last chapter, I expect a lot of reviews now because every review encourages me to write more! Please support me! Till then.**

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Kotetsu yawned as he put his feet up at the guard post, "What a boring day," he said to his partner, Izumo, as said partner looked up from his scroll and frowned at him.

"Oi you can't be lax, especially at a crucial time like this, we need to be on the alert," Izumo chastised as Kotetsu merely put his foot down, but still had a bored expression on his face.

"Yeah, yeah I know," Kotetsu said as his face became melancholy, "I heard we lost 30 men," he commented.

"Yeah, I heard it was a nightmare, two are in hospital with critical injuries, the medic-nins have never seen anything like it before. They've extracted some strange object embedded inside the shinobis and have no idea what it is," Izumo said, "do you think it's some sort of new weapon?"

"If it is then we better get some intel on it fast, or else I don't like my chances when I'm facing one on the battlefield. What do you think our next move would be?"

"Most likely intelligence gathering, it'll just be a repeat of what happened this morning if we tried attacking them again, not to mention that they'll be better prepared for us by now."

"Damn…and on such a good day too," Kotetsu sighed as he was getting ready to close his eyes for a moment when he heard an unfamiliar sound, it sounded like a growl, but unlike that of an animal and it was getting closer, "did you hear that?"

"Yeah," Izumo asked as the two Chunnins got out of their posts and peeked over the gate to see three vehicle-like transport heading towards them. It had an overall length of almost 7 metes, almost 3 meters wide and almost 3 meters tall and had some sort of weapon on it that was manned by a person. "Kotetsu…is that what I think it is?" he asked his partner as Kotetsu nodded, he then went and clanged the bell that sent a warning shot to the main gate control as the gate immediately went and shut itself, after that a general alert went out to all shinobis as they prepared for an invasion force.

"Well that was fast," John said as he braked and looked behind him, "what do we do now Sarge?" he asked.

"Wait for orders," Parks said and sure enough the voice of Burton immediately burst in.

"All units stand by," he said as John sighed, he couldn't believed he signed up for this mission, he knew that Fort Hood needed to get some information about where they are. But approaching the place where they just massacred 30 of their soldiers? They might as well fire a declaration of war right here and now, but he was also curious about the swordsmen and what else they could do so he volunteered for this mission.

The Colonel's M2A3 Bradley then went forward before he activated the PA system, "This is the US military, we would like to speak to the mayor of this city, we would like to have a peace talk," he said. There was silence for a long while, enough to make John nervous.

Finally there was some shouting from beyond the gates, but John couldn't hear what was being said though the Colonel seemed to have heard it as he shouted back a response. Then three F-15 Eagles flew overhead sending a sonic boom above the skies, another shouting later and the gates opened up as the convoy went in. John was surprised by what he saw, he expected some sort of medieval buildings like straw roofs and brick walls, but it seemed so…modern, well not exactly modern, but much advanced then he expected as he swore he saw a TV in one of the houses. But because the convoy was moving so fast he couldn't be sure, also he saw the terrified looks on the villager's face and it was something he thought he wouldn't see, he had enough looks of terror for one lifetime as he sat back and rode through town.

The Bradley then stopped as the door opened, "Move, move, move," Parks said as John grabbed his M4 and stepped out of the vehicle amidst gasps from the crowd, "stand by, stand by, do not panic," Parks said as the soldiers merely went on the alert as Burton then went and met with an old man in some sort of white and red robe, as they talked for a bit before shaking hands.

"So far so good," John said to himself, he didn't like the thought that he would have to kill another person again. These villagers obviously didn't know what kind of power they wielded, and looking up he could see those swordsmen again along with lesser ranked men and women who all dressed differently, but wore the same flak jacket with them. He then watched as Burton and the old man exchanged some more words before going into a building, no doubt to probably discuss the situation.

While the Colonel and the old man was talking the other soldiers were left guarding the Bradleys while villagers looked on at them with curious eyes while they were whispering at them. A common sight John had seen before as he sighed and leaned against the Bradley, "Sarge can I just have a walk around the place?"

"Negative, I don't want you getting lost, or killed," Park said as John gave a small shrug as he watched some children look at them before running off as they waited around for a couple of hours, at the same time the villagers began to move away, their curiosity satisfied though some were grumbling about something.

"Hello, would you be the foreigners I keep hearing about?" a male voice asked suddenly, as the soldiers reacted on instinct as several rifles were pointed to a male with spiky white hair, with a headband covering one of his eyes and a mask covering his lower jaw, "ah sorry, sorry I don't mean any harm."

"You look like one of your comrades from this morning, so forgive me if I don't take your word for it," Parks said.

"Please believe me when I'm just curious as to what you are," the man said with a chuckle, "and my comrades are called shinobis for furture references."

"What you mean like ninjas? Ones that walk on walls and water and all that crap?" one of the soldiers commented.

"Well we can walk on water and walls," the man said as several looked at each other in confusion, "here let me demonstrate it for you," he said as he walked towards a wall and then walked straight up it until he reached the roof as the soldiers gaped at him.

"Okay I believe him," another soldier said in awe.

"Then you can use magic as well?" John asked.

"Those are 'magic' as you call them are called jutsus, they are very important for shinobis," the man replied.

"Really? That's interesting," John said as the other soldiers shoot off other questions to the man, who responded in turn, however John then saw a group of men heading towards an alley, all of them seemed to be grinning at something as he caught catches of the conversation. Something about teaching 'the demon' a lesson, normally John wouldn't disobey an order from his sergeant nor would he actually follow a group of men into an alley. But something told him, an instinct bred from a war, told him something was wrong; he cautiously followed them to the alley as grunts of pain could be heard. He then peered over the corner to see a group of men kicking at what seemed to be a 12 year old blonde boy as he took out his Beretta M9, "Hey what are you guys doing?" he asked.

The group of men immediately stopped and looked at John, "Mind your own business, this is village affairs," one of them men gruffly said as John shook his head.

"No it's not, when you're beating on a defenceless kid," John said pointing his handgun at the ground, "move away from him now," he said as the men refused.

"He's a demon, he killed many of our friends and family, he's a Jinchuuriki," the man said. Although John didn't know what a Jinchurriki was, he could tell that something must have happened in the village for this poor boy to be attacked. Maybe his parents had done something to offend the villagers, but whatever the reason was he wasn't going to let them continue attacking the boy.

"I will not warn you again, step away from the boy," John said in a firm voice and when none of the men moved he fired a warning shot on the ground prompting them to take a step back as fear replaced anger in their eyes, "this is your last warning!" he shouted as the men immediately dispersed. John then went over to the boy and checked his injuries, it didn't seem to be serious, other then a broken rib and some bruises. More soldiers came in, including a medic, as he checked the boy.

"What the hell happened?" Parks asked.

"Some guys were whaling this kid, saying something about a demon?" John said as Park became a bit nervous, demon, in whatever world, was always a bad sign, "I don't think they meant it literally…at least I hope they don't," John said not reassuring anyone by that remark. He looked back to see the villagers gathering at the entrance, while a few soldiers were keeping them back, they had a look of fear in their eyes, but not of the soldiers, but more of the boy. John wondered just what exactly happened to have them hate a 12 year old boy.

"What happened here?" the old man wearing the red and white robe asked as Colonel Burton was also there. The US soldiers stood to attention and saluted, while the one eyed shinobi came and surveyed the damage.

"He was attacked sir," John reported, "by several men, I managed to scare them off," as the old man sighed sadly and looked at the one eyed shinobi.

"I thought you were guarding him Kakashi," the old man said with a hint of anger as Kakashi stood a little straighter.

"I was pre-occupied with the foreigners sir," Kakashi said, as though he blamed them for leaving his charge undefended as a few of the soldiers began to open their mouth to retort back in defence when Burton shut them up.

"This a re-occurring thing Mr Sarutobi?" Burton asked as Sarutobi bit his bottom lip.

"It's a complicated issue Colonel," Sarutobi said, "and it's regarding _that_ topic," as Burton seemed to know what the man was talking about.

"I see, well in that case we'll be talking at greater length about it," he said as Sarutobi nodded, "all units go back to the Bradley, we're going back to base," he said as the soldiers moved back into the vehicle. John looked at the battered body of the boy before shaking his head and walking away.

"H-hey onii-san," the boy croaked as John turned to him, "thanks for saving me," he said with a smile, as John could see for the first time that the boy had some whisker-like marks on his face.

"Yeah sure no problem kid, be careful next time okay?" John said smiling before going back into the Bradley, the same vehicle the Colonel was in as well, "Do you know what that was about sir?" he asked.

"I do, and it's a top secret issue," Burton said simply ending the conversation as John wanted to ask more, but he knew his limits as he started up the engine and the three vehicle drove back to base.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello everyone, thank you to those that reviewed. I look forward to further reviews and I am also open to any suggestions about how the story should go.**

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The next few days were enough to send John into complete boredom mode, as he cleaned his rifle for the god knows time this day. Ever since the US army had entered Konohakagure they had been on the alert for any other attacks despite Burton's reassurance that there will be no retaliation, however as the days wind down some of the soldiers were getting restless as there was nothing to do on base. John could feel their frustration, it would have been alright if there was a town nearby they could go to for some R & R, but that wasn't possible and the nearest town was of course Konohakagure.

However the only thing that staved off complete boredom was the information that Burton had gathered from the old man, who was called the Hokage, about the world that they had ended up in at the present moment. It was a very interesting read and it had generated much interest, though the information was only limited to the geography of the world and about the various nations that existed in the world. There was almost little information about the shinobis themselves other then a short introduction of who they were and what they did. It wasn't much, but it made the soldiers aware that the people in this world treated shinobis as a closely guarded secret; therefore they would need to be careful around them.

John sighed again as he groaned and decided to go and stretch his legs outside as he went out to the bustling life of Fort Hood, things seemed to have gone back to normal, as the engineers were tuning the vehicles and the more gung ho marines were on the firing range competing against each other. It was like any other day in Fort Hood, "Hey John!" Adam shouted as John turned to see his friends.

"Hey, what's up?" John said as Alice was next to Adam, she had recovered yesterday after resting for a day or so. "Hey Alice, feeling better?" he asked.

"Yep, I'm ready to go," Alice said cheerfully.

"Go? Go where? We're stuck in the middle of a forest," John said.

"That village before, just got permission from the Colonel, he needs someone to get some food and he picked me," Adam said, "and since you're the only one that knows the path to the village I thought you would want to come along."

"Really? Can we pay for the food? I mean I don't think they accept American dollars here," John said.

"We'll make do somehow," Adam said as John sighed, better then being stuck here with nothing to do, as they got into their Bradley and drove down the road.

When they got to the gate they saw two gate guards approaching them, "We're here to buy some food," John told them.

"Do you have a permit to enter the village?" Kotetsu asked as John looked at his companions in confusion, "No permit, no entry," the shinobi said as Adam grinned and handed John a document as Kotetsu read it, "alright you can go in," he said as they drove on ahead.

"How the-" John began.

"Colonel gave it to me before I came and got you, seems they're strict on security and everything around here," Adam said.

"Well when the only thing they worry about are some guys firing off fireballs and whatnot I suppose they don't really need Stingers do they?" Alice retorted as Adam shook his head.

After they parked their Bradley they then went to the nearest grocer where they went and brought a list of things, almost two pages long, of the food and ingredients that they needed, which surprisingly was all there. They then went to pay for it as the shopkeeper gruffly told them the amount, but in ryos, all three soldiers looked at each other as Adam took out their own money, "Uh…we don't exactly have ryos, so will this do for the moment?" Adam asked hesitantly as the shopkeeper took it and observed it carefully.

"Hmm…well it ain't exactly ryos, nor will it be acceptable in this world, though it looks almost identical to what we use," the shopkeeper said, "but I'll let it slide for now. But next time you guys better pay with our money, not yours," he said as Adam thanked him and quickly got out.

"How in gods name did you not have any money?" John hissed, "Didn't the Colonel give it to you?"

"I told you, I'll work it out," Adam said as they put their shopping in their vehicle and was preparing to leave when a boy's voice called out to them.

"Hey you're the onii-san from before right?" as John turned to see the blonde boy that he saved.

"Hey, yeah, yeah I am, you're feeling alright?" John asked as the boy grinned.

"Yep, I heal pretty fast," the boy said as John had to admit that it was a pretty fast healing if that was the case, they probably had some jutsu that allowed them to heal fast.

"Are those guys still bothering you?" John asked as the boy shrugged.

"I get that all the time, have been since I was a kid," the boy said.

"Hey that's not right, your parents should have a good talk to them," John said as the boy looked even more sad.

"I don't have parents," he said, "I'm an orphan," as John cursed himself for walking into that trap.

"Damn, I'm sorry to hear that kid," John said.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki, not kid," Naruto said suddenly cheerful.

"Good to meet you, I'm John Bradley," John said, "and that guy over there is Adam Greenwald, and that's Alice Morris over there."

"Is she your girlfriend?" Naruto asked pointing to Alice who blushed furiously.

"Hell no! Not with that idiot!" Alice yelled.

"That hurts Alice," John said with a chuckle, "but no, she's not my girlfriend, she's Adam's girlfriend."

"Oh okay, hey, hey wanna eat ramen?" as Adam's eyes shone. If there was one thing that Adam loved it was ramen, even though he was an American he appreciated the Japanese meal and if you wanted Adam to do something then promise him to take him out on a ramen run and he'll do it for you.

"Yes please!" Adam shouted as the two of them then left a trail of dust making John and Alice chuckle nervously.

"Wow, they even have a ramen freak in this world," Alice said her eyes twitching.

"Well there has to be one in any world," John said as he went to where the trail led them to a small ramen shop where a middle aged man and a girl was cooking and serving ramen.

"Welcome, oh it's your Naruto, and who are you new friends?" the man asked.

"That's John Bradley, Adam Greenwald, and Alice Morris, John was the one that saved me the other day," Naruto said.

"Oh so you're those foreign soldiers everyone's been talking about," the man said, "I'm Teuchi and this is my daughter Ayame."

"Pleasure," John said, "I didn't know ramen would exist in this world."

"Oh so you have ramen in your world as well?" Teuchi asked as the three soldiers nodded, "Well then let me treat you to our world's ramen, on the house," as Adam whooped.

"Thanks, we'll pay you back once we got our hands on your world's money," he said.

"No problem, no problem," Teuchi said as he began to make ramen, "so how did you guys get here?" Teuchi asked.

"To be quite honest we have no idea," Adam said truthfully, "we just went to sleep and next day we find ourselves in your world."

"Well that's a funny way of getting here, and you have no way of getting back?" Teuchi asked.

"Not at the moment, we don't know how long we'll be here, though I'm certain we have people in our world working on the same problem," John replied.

"Well for now you're always welcomed in Konoha, even though we had a bit of a rocky start," Teuchi said giving them the ramen.

"Thanks, though in retrospect we may have jumped the gun on that one," John said.

"Jump the gun?" Naruto asked.

"It's an idiom, kind of saying we fought without thinking of what would happen, like a reflex," Alice explained.

"Oh I see," Naruto said, "well…I guess you must have a pretty good reason to do it right?"

"R-right," Alice said nervously though in fact the US did not have any good reason to start shooting, in retrospect they really did jump the gun on that one literally.

"So how was school today Naruto?" Teuchi asked.

"It was boring as usual, we just learnt more jutsus and had a bit of shuriken training," Naruto said making the soldiers look at him.

"Uh what?" Adam asked, "What do you mean shuriken training?"

"Shuriken training, when we throw shurikens to improve our aim," Naruto said as the soldiers began to edge away.

"Uhm Naruto I don't think you should talk anymore about school," Teuchi said seeing how edgy the soldiers were becoming.

"What kind of school does Naruto go to?" Adam asked, his voice hinting at shock and anger, mostly anger.

"Please you have to understand, shinobis are a way of life in this world its-" Teuchi tried to explain.

"The hell it is!" Adam shouted, "You're training _kids_ to go to war? To kill? What kind of world is this?"

"Adam man chill I'm sure the Colonel can explain this," John said being the more level headed of the two.

"No man, this isn't right! This is just as bad as those child soldiers in Afghanistan, I thought I was through with this crap!" Adam said getting up angrily.

"Hey look cool it Adam," John said getting up as well, "let's go back to base."

"No, I'm going to go to that school and give them a piece of my mind," Adam said as John grabbed him and pulled him back, "let go private," Adam said pulling rank as he was a Corporal while John was merely a private fresh off the academy.

"No sir," John said, "you are not yourself, calm yourself down."

"That is an order," Adam said glaring at John as Alice intervened.

"Adam that's enough," she said loud enough for Adam to snap out of his anger and he immediately calmed down though he shrugged off John's hand away, "let's just go home," she said quietly as Adam looked at John for a while before going off to their Bradley and then slamming the door, Alice was behind him, but before John could get in it sped off as John groaned.

"Great…looks like I'm walking back to base," he said with a sigh before looking back at Naruto, "hey sorry you gotta see that kid, don't mind him."

"Is it true…about child soldiers in your world?" Naruto asked as John looked unsure, not knowing what to say.

"Yeah," John said after thinking for a while, "yeah there are child soldiers in our world, they're about your age, usually younger, they fight in battles…it's not a pretty scene when you're fighting kids," he said, "but don't worry…it's your world, not ours, if it's the norm then…" he gave a small hesitant shrug, "I suppose we'll just have to live with that."

"Yeah…" Naruto said hesitantly looking down.

"Thanks for the meal Teuchi, I'll pay you back later," John said as he began his long trek back to base. It took him an hour and a half to get there, when he arrived he knew that the story about Konoha's school of shinobi had gotten out, there were a lot of shouting of outrage and anger all over the base. "Great…couldn't keep your mouth shut could you Adam?" John grumbled as Alex came running to him.

"John!" he exclaimed, "What the hell happened over there? Adam's fuming about something, and next thing I know half the base wants to attack Konoha!"

"Adam found out that they train their shinobis pretty young, you know how he feels about child soldiers," John said as Alex understood immediately and nodded. "How riled up are they?" as an M1 Abrams roared to life and went on the move, "Pretty riled up," he finished his question, "what's the Colonel doing?"

"Trying to keep calm, but he's fighting a losing battle, some of the officers are pissed too," Alex said as they jogged over to the main crowd as the Colonel and his subordinates tried to keep calm, John tried to shout over the shouting, but that proved futile. He then pulled out his handgun and fired a few shots before the crowd quietened down.

"Hey let's keep this calm before we go marine on them, no offense to the actual marines," John said adding the last statement quickly as the marine shrugged and nodded. "So you all know that these guys train them pretty young, I know a lot of you are upset about this, but we gotta realise our situation. We're in a foreign world, no help from American or allied forces, limited resources and we don't know when we're coming back," John didn't know where he was getting all these words from, heck he didn't know how he was getting all of them to listen. "But one thing is clear, we need to keep our heads, we can't lose the only ally we got in this world…we have to keep bad blood out of this relationship if we're going to survive," he continued looking over the crowd of soldiers.

"What do you know? You're just a private!" one of the soldiers shouted.

"That's right, I may be a fresh recruit, but I know at least that much. We all want to get home, we all want to survive, we can't rely on our weapons forever…they can't protect us forever, not when we're out of ammo or out of gas or whatever, that's why we need Konoha's protection. They're the strongest nation in this world, that's good news for us, so let's not ruin that…let's cast aside whatever anger we have for their own training program, and let's just try to survive for now."

"He's right," Burton said lighting a cigarette, "we don't have a way home, and we don't know how long we're going to be here for, the best thing to do is to keep a low profile and try not to make ourselves stand out. Now in order to do that we need to have a good relationship with Konoha, I know how you all feel, it also surprises me that they're training kids to be shinobis, but that's how their world works…so for now let's try to push that aside and maintain our cover." There was few minutes of discontent murmurings, but John's speech, along with the backing of Burton, all of them had began to disperse to other jobs, Adam still looked incensed as he strode off to his tent, "You did good private," Burton said as John turned to face him.

"Ah no it was nothing sir," John said with a chuckle, "I didn't honestly think they were going to listen to me."

"They wouldn't, but you gave good arguments, and you played on our situation. That's what was needed, they just needed to someone to give them a good reason not to attack Konoha. Adam just stirred up their insecurities and sense of moral outrage," Burton explained, "and because you did that I think it's time you had a promotion, you've been in service for four months right?" Burton asked

"Yes sir," John said.

"Well congratulations, you're now officially Private First Class John Bradley," as John couldn't stop the smile coming on his face, "I would promote you to Corporal immediately since you have a good command look on you, but I think I'll have to give that a little bit more thought before making that decision."

"Thank you sir, I won't let you down," John said saluting as Burton laughed and patted his shoulder.

"I know you won't," Burton said before walking off smoking his cigar.

The next day John got into the Bradley, he was curious about the shinobi school that Naruto had incidentally mentioned the other day, he was alone because he didn't want a repeat of yesterday. The topic was still a tense one and the majority were still unhappy with their new situation, however John's speech had somewhat mellowed them out and they didn't try to do anything beyond grumbling. Besides being alone gave him the perk of doing anything he wanted without any limits, he could go anywhere he wanted, provided he returned back to base within ninety minutes. As to why he was alone? The Colonel had given him an exception due to the fact that he was one of the few open-minded soldiers in regards this world's moral issue, and that it was merely to satisfy John's own curiosity.

He and Adam had not spoken the entire day yesterday; Alice had tried to reconcile the two of them together, but neither was willing to say anything but their own viewpoints on it. Truthfully John felt Adam was being childish, but given his past history he could somewhat sympathise with his point of view, but it didn't mean that he needed to have an all out slugfest with Konoha. He was about to drive out when someone banged on the door as he opened it to see Alice standing there, "Hey John," she said hesitantly.

"Hey Alice, look I don't have time to try to convince Adam, I'm going to Konoha and see this school," John said not in the mood of trying to talk to Adam again.

"I know," Alice said, "I…I want to come with you," she said as John looked at her, "please? I just want to know their side of the story, maybe that would convince Adam that they don't need to be 'liberated'."

John sighed, the Colonel didn't specify whether or not he could bring someone with him, only that he was allowed to go out alone and to be back in ninety minutes. It would be refreshing to go with someone that was open minded, but he didn't want Alice to be harking about Adam the entire trip, "Alright get on," he finally said as Alice smiled and got on.

"As you can see the shinobi trainees also learn mathematics and writing, as well as other subjects just like any other children who don't want to become shinobis, they don't just learn how to…do their job," Iruka Umino, a shinobi with a scar over his nose, explained as the two soldiers walked through the academy, which was quite large, larger then any normal high school and possibly on par with a university. Both had been surprised that this was merely a school and not a place for further education, which was none at all as their world had no equivalent of university or college.

"Naruto mentioned shuriken training, do you teach them how to use weapons?" John asked.

"Kunais and shurikens are the basic tools used by shinobis all over the world, therefore it is natural we would teach them how to at least use them effectively, however there are special weapons that can cater for each individuals," Iruka explained, "we also touch on the three forms of fighting: Taijutsu, which is hand-to-hand fighting. Ninjutsus, encompassing chakra control, hand seals etc. And also Genjutsus though this is lightly touched upon as we only tell them how to discern if you are in a Genjutsu and how to release yourself from it."

"Uh what's Genjutsu?" Alice asked.

"Basically Genjutsu are illusion techniques designed to disorient an enemy, or fool them into thinking of something when there's nothing there," Iruka said.

"So basically messing with the mind," John said liking that form of attack even less, at least with Taijutsu and Ninjutsu you can see the attack coming the majority of the time, but with Genjutsu…well special forces are trained against psychological attacks during interrogation, but he was wondering if they were able to withstand a Genjutsu attack in the middle of a battlefield.

"That's a crude way of putting it, but yes," Iruka said as they walked in silence for a few minutes before he interrupted them, "I heard that your friend wasn't happy about the academy yesterday," he commented.

"You have to understand that the minimum age to join the military in our world is 17, and that's with parental consent, otherwise it's 18," Alice said, "also the age which you allow your students to enrol is frowned upon in all countries, well almost all countries."

"You have countries that allow young children to fight too?" Iruka asked.

"Yes, but those are countries that are always at war with each other, a civil war would be the world," John said.

"Oh…" Iruka said, "I suppose that means our world is similar to those countries, we're always at war with one nation or another."

"Perhaps," John said with a shrug, "but you guys don't look like those countries," John said as they passed a bulletin board that had posters of men all over the place, that had prices on them as well, "what's this?" John asked.

"Ah those are the bounty boards, basically they're wanted men that have prices on their heads, we have the occasional mercenaries pass through here so we hang these up if they want to take it," Iruka explained.

"Are they shinobis?" John asked as Alice looked over his shoulder.

"Not all of them, but yes there are some shinobis that are wanted for one reason or another," Iruka said as the two soldiers looked at the poster before looking at each other and grinning.

"Do you happen to have jobs that don't require you to be shinobis?" John asked as Iruka tilted his head in confusion.

"You want us to take jobs here?" Burton remarked when the two soldiers returned with a stack full of papers, mission papers, as John nodded.

"It would be a great way to earn money, and at the same time we can stave off boredom," John replied.

"But aren't these missions for shinobis?" Burton asked, "Do you think that we can actually complete these kinds of missions?"

"Well their missions are divided by ranks, the higher the rank the more dangerous it is and therefore we won't be able to do it, however the lowest ranks: D and C are doable for us. D ranks are basically missions such as weeding and helping construction workers with things, while C ranks are bodyguard duty and hunting wild animals…though Iruka did say that that C ranks would likely pose some threat to the shinobi though he didn't say what kind of threats it would be. Then there's also bounties, I grabbed the bounties that doesn't involve shinobis, we can take them, use the reward to buy food and other things. Beats just sitting around here doing nothing every day," John explained.

"Hmm…" Burton said as he looked at one of the mission briefings, "this is usually we do anyways in war torn worlds, so I guess it won't be too different," he said, "how are we going to distribute the missions though?"

"Don't worry, Alex is already on that as we speak," John said as a few hours later a bulletin board was made as John and Alice stuck up the missions all over the place while saving space for the bounties.

"What is this?" a marine asked.

"Jobs, do them and you get paid, like any other jobs in our world," John said as the marine looked at it.

"Weeding? Are you kidding me?" the marine exclaimed.

"Hey think of it like the part time job you used to do," John said.

"Finding a lost cat?" another questioned as John gave a nervous chuckle, okay perhaps that one was probably something to laugh at, but hey…a job's a job right?

"At least the construction one is alright, I did some back in Afghanistan with my unit," another one commented as the soldiers began to clamour for the missions and jobs.

"Alright, alright! Chill guys!" John shouted, "We got the missions, but we still haven't set up a system on how we're going to get paid, or how we'll coordinate with Konoha and whatnot. Just come back in a day or two and then we'll be ready," as the soldiers complained and grumbled, but eventually they dispersed as John, Alice, and Alex began discussing on how they were to do this since they would have to liaison with Konoha. Finally, with the help of Sarutobi, they managed to get a system going where through jutsus and scrolls they would be able to tell Konoha which mission they've chosen, and the method of payment would be transferred to Fort Hood's treasury and then given to the soldiers that completed the mission. For bounties however they would have to directly bring the criminal to Konoha's prison guards where the money would be given to them directly.

With a job system in place it wasn't long before the soldiers were fighting each other for missions and jobs, most took the bounty job saying that it would be the easiest thing to do. While others took bodyguard duties, the C rank ones, while a few took D rank ones that involved construction duties; none took the ones that included weeding or finding lost property, or animals, to which John returned them to the Hokage as they were needed to be done anyways.

However this didn't come with its own problems as the shinobis complained that their work and livelihood were taken by foreigners. Sarutobi managed to calm them down that they weren't taking all of their missions, only those that involved bodyguard duty and delivering, nothing that would indicate that they would meet with shinobis during the trip, although this somewhat placated them there were still grumbling from the overall population.

John personally took a bounty job, he needed some action and this seemed to be an ideal one, and with a 10,000 ryo reward it was probably someone pretty dangerous. While driving towards the location where the poster said the man, Ryonuske Kaiba, was last seen John checked his gear and made sure everything was in order. He was going with a full M2 Bradley crew, including the maximum limit of seven soldiers inside, it was better to have more men with them then to be outnumbered, "Hey John do you think we should grab a snack after this?" Alice asked.

"Huh? No let's just get the guy and bring him in, maybe we can get something in Konoha," John replied absentmindedly.

"You're not worried that you're going to get a small cut are you?" Alice asked as John chuckled.

"No I'm not, I don't really care about the money to be honest, I just want to see some action…the only thing I'm shooting at these days are paper targets." John said.

"What's the difference?" Alice asked, "We did the same before we got transported here."

"I don't know…maybe because we get called up to do something now and again, even if that's somewhere as vague as Iraq or Afghanistan. But here…well it's boring as hell," John said as Alice simply shrugged. They arrived at the location as the soldiers disembarked along with John and Alice leaving only the driver and the soldier manning the 7.62 mm machine gun. The place looked almost deserted with only a few locals around staring at the soldiers.

"It's quiet here, I don't like quiet," Alice said as John understood her feeling, whenever things were quiet it usually meant that there was an ambush in the process. John may not have a lot of experience fighting, but he knew that an ambush is never good in any world, "keep your eyes open," Alice said.

John approached one of the locals as he took out the poster with Ryonuske's face on it, "Ma'am have you seen this man?" he asked as the woman shook her head quickly and went back into her home, it was clear that she was afraid, meaning that Ryonuske must frequent this place often. It was the same for any locals they meet, they either face a direct no followed by the local going to their home and locking the door, or simply a shake of their head and then going to their home.

"Damn, this is as bad as a war-torn country," Alice exasperated, "we're getting nowhere with them."

"Well at least they're not throwing stones at us," one of the soldier commented as Alce frowned.

"Come on let's go deeper," Alice said as she knocked on the Bradley signalling it to keep going as the soldiers went into formation, the Bradley in the middle covering them on all sides, while the soldiers would be its lookout and respond to any attacks quickly. They went deeper into the town as it became quieter, almost like it was completely dead, as John surveyed the rooftops hoping to see any sign of an impending attack, because right now it was starting to smell more like an ambush as suddenly there was a battle cry before arrows began raining down on them as both front and back were then swarming with sword wielding thugs.

"Ambush! Engage the enemy!" Alice yelled as the Bradley's machine gun swung around and fired its rounds into the archers as they were quickly ripped to pieces as the thugs slowed down a bit after seeing their friends being killed so quickly from the strange weapons, but then resumed their charge as bullets roared out of their M4 carbines killing the first row of thugs while the Bradley's machine gun continued to spit out death on both sides as the remaining thugs soon turned tail while dozens lay dead around them.

"Well that was easier then I thought it would be," John said before a something round dropped in front of them as it a fuse was quickly being devoured, he knew instantly what it was, "grenade!" he screamed as the soldiers ran away from it before it exploded sending shrapnel everywhere, none of which penetrated the Bradley. More grenades then exploded as they continued to take cover behind the Bradley before the smoke cleared.

"Think they're dead boss?" a gruff voice asked.

"If they are then they're weaker then other bounty hunters that's come after me," a male voice said before laughing as John peeked over to see a group of them standing behind a big man. John gave a short laugh before nodding to the machine gunner as he primed the gun before the machine gun burst into life taking everyone down in front of the vehicle, after the gunfire stopped the soldiers came out of hiding to inspect the damage. Most had been killed on impact, but there were still some there were wounded.

"What do you think we should do with the wounded?" Alice asked as she poked at Ryonuske's body.

"I don't know, we'll probably have to take them back for trial and all that," John said.

"I say we just shoot them and put them out of their misery," a soldier commented as his friends agreed.

"Hey we're not some second-rate soldiers who shoot people on a whim," Alice said as the soldiers quietened down, "let's bring them along with us, don't forget the bounty," she said as John helped a soldier haul the body onto a cart they found and attached it to the Bradley before they got into the vehicle and started back towards Konohakagure. Along the way Alice noticed that John was quiet, and absentminded as he kept staring out the window, "What's wrong John? You've been quiet the whole trip."

"It's nothing," John said though his face said differently, but Alice didn't want to intrude on that as she kept quiet about it while John reflected on their situation and wondered if they would be able to keep their neutrality for long.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey John," Iruka said sitting next to John after they had delivered the body to Konoha and got their reward, at the moment John was spending his share of the reward with another bowl of ramen as well as paying Teuchi back for the last time he was there.

"Hello Iruka, class already finished?" John asked.

"No, I just finished proctoring the graduation exam," Iruka said as John nodded.

"How did it go?" John asked as Iruka had explained what students needed to do in order to pass the graduation exam.

"Everyone passed…except Naruto," Iruka said with a hint of sadness as John looked at him.

"Oh no, what happened?" John asked.

"He wasn't able to produce a suitable clone, I wasn't able to pass him properly even though Mizuki wanted to pass him," Iruka said.

"Well…what'll happen to him then?" John asked, "Will he have to repeat the entire year again?"

"Yeah, for the third time," as John coughed on his tea out of surprise.

"Third? He's failed twice already?" John asked.

"He can't seem to control his chakra, that's the principle of all jutsus, if a shinobi can't control their chakra then they can't properly use jutsus. That seems to be Naruto's problem," Iruka explained.

"Damn, poor kid," John said as he sipped his tea.

"Yeah, well…technically I could have passed him since he did somewhat make a clone, they weren't just functional, but…but I wanted to push him harder, make him improve himself to become a better shinobi," Iruka said.

"Well it's your call," John said as he slurped his ramen, "I'm just surprised that Naruto is willing to go so far to become a shinobi."

"That's because being Hokage is his number one dream," Iruka said as John looked at him, "ever since he was a child he had always be ostracized for something he had no control over, the adults don't want to look at him and even abuse him often, while the children follow the examples of their parents and do their best to ignore him in school…he's led a lonely life and he wants everyone to acknowledge him. The best way to do that is to become Hokage, that's why he tries so hard everyday to become the best shinobi he can be…he believes that once that happens everyone will acknowledge him and he'll finally have the feeling he always wanted."

John looked at his ramen before finishing it all and paying Teuchi, "And do you think that he's capable of doing that? Becoming Hokage?" he asked.

"Of course, why else would I try to push him everyday?" Iruka asked as John smirked and said that he needed to get back to base as they said their goodbyes. Night quickly approached as John took a walk outside of the base for a while, he needed to clear his head after what he heard today, he had no idea why Naruto was being so abused in this village, what did the boy do to deserve such treatment? More importantly how could the Hokage let this happen? Wasn't he supposed to take care of his villagers just like how the President takes care of the United States? Although that probably wasn't a good analogy…a better one would be how Colonel Burton takes care of Fort Hood and its men and women on a regular basis. John just couldn't understand why such a thing could occur in a world like this, as he was walking and reflecting he heard someone talking to himself as John stopped and tried to hone in on the source before walking towards it.

He finally found the source as he saw that it was Naruto, doing something with his hands, while reading a scroll as Naruto then cried out, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" as two exact replicas of Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke. John's eyes widened as to him that looked like two perfect clones, yet Iruka said that Naruto wasn't able to pass the exam because he wasn't able to create perfect clones. Had Iruka lied to him that time? Was he like the other villagers he seemed to have an unknown grudge against Naruto? It angered him that a teacher would act this way towards a student, as Naruto then dispelled the clones as John approached him, "Ah John-oniisan," Naruto called out.

"Naruto, what did you just do?" John asked.

"Hmm…I don't know to be exact," Naruto said crossing his arms, "but once I show everyone this new jutsu then I can graduate."

"But Iruka told me that you weren't able to pass the exam because you weren't able to do the clone technique," John said.

"Yeah that's right," Naruto said scratching his head, "but now I can do the clone technique for some reason," making John even more confused before something in him clicked.

"Naruto, where did you get the scroll from?" he asked.

"From the old man's office, Mizuki-sensei said that if I was able to master even one technique from the scroll they have to pass me," Naruto grinned as John groaned and slapped his forehead.

"And let me guess…the scroll is supposed to be forbidden?" John asked as Naruto nodded as John groaned and slapped his forehead, "Naruto buddy you've been tricked," as Naruto looked at him in confusion, "this guy, Mizuki, he wanted you to get the scroll," as he looked around him, "look maybe it's best if you get out of here, I'll get you back to base where you'll be safe."

"W-what? Why?" Naruto asked.

"Because Mizuki is using you to steal the scroll," John said a short laugh alerted John to Mizuki, who was standing on a tree branch as John stood in between him and Mizuki.

"For a foreigner you got pretty sharp senses," Mizuki said.

"Anyone with half a brain can see that you just want the scroll," John said as he unholstered his M9 92FS, aka Beretta, and aimed it at Mizuki, "now I'm going to take Naruto, and the scroll, out of here and back to my base…you will not move and if you know what's good for you, you will get out of here pronto."

"And you think you can beat me? A Chunin?" Mizuki asked as John had to admit he didn't know if he would be able to go against a seasoned shinobi, hell he didn't even know what to do at this point, "I doubt it, so how about you give me the scroll and I'll let you and the boy go?"

"Oh no you don't," John said, "our alliance might not be an official one, but I'm not going to risk what relationship we have to go out the window, so I will not repeat myself again. Leave us alone," he said as Mizuki looked at John for a while before shrugging and turning away, John lowered his gun a bit and then instantly yelled in pain as his shoulder burst into flame before a powerful kick to his face sent him spinning away from Naruto, his sidearm clattering to the side.

"Did you really think you would be able to escape from me?" Mizuki asked as John groaned and struggled to get up, the pain was nerve wracking and he was finding it hard to keep conscious, these shinobis got some serious muscle over here. But he managed to get his bearings as he looked to his right shoulder to see a kunai sticking out of it, he then saw Mizuki running towards him at top speed, but his combat training kicked in as he took a defensive position and blocked his next attack before countering with a sharp jab taking Mizuki by surprise as his head snapped back, John then continued with a roundhouse kick to Mizuki's stomach as he rolled backwards.

"Not bad," Mizuki said getting up, "you're as good as your average Genin taijutsu wise, though that's nothing compared to a Chunin's ability."

"Genin this, Chunin this, what the hell is up with that?" John complained spitting some blood out of his mouth.

"Genin and Chunin are ranks in this world, Genin being the lowest and Chunin a rank higher, there is also Jounin which is what the elite ninjas are bestowed," Mizuki smirked, "so you can understand that you, having no shinobi training, cannot win against me especially with your weapon taken away."

"That's not my only weapon I have with me," John said as he took out his combat knife and took a balanced form, enough for offense and defence, as he gestured for Mizuki to come and attack him, which he did as Mizuki did something as two identical copies appeared next to him as John had to decide which one was the real one, one of the Mizukis approached him as John reacted and sliced him on the arm resulting in it disappearing in a puff of smoke. He then noticed another one as he roundhouse kicked him, revealing it to be a clone as Mizuki then emerged from the ground and sliced him even further making him groan in pain as Mizuki chuckled.

"Mizuki-sensei, stop this!" Naruto said getting in between the rogue Chunin and John, "Why are you doing this?"

"Why? It's simple! I want the power to myself, with power I would be able to become the strongest shinobi alive!" he exclaimed.

"But…why use me?" Naruto asked as betryal tinged his voice.

"Simple, because of what's inside of you," Mizuki said, "have you ever wondered why the villagers hate you?" he asked. When Naruto shook his head he laughed, "Oh of course you wouldn't, that old geezer made that stupid law forbidding anyone to tell you, or the other children, about your little guest. You see 12 years ago the Nine Tailed Fox wreaked havoc upon Konoha, many ninjas died in the defence of their home, however the Fourth Hokage managed to seal the demonic fox inside a container at the cost of his own life, do you want to know who that container is?" Mizuki asked.

Although John did not know precisely who the container is, he could already guess where Mizuki was heading into and his eyes widened, "No…it can't be," he whispered to himself.

"That's right," Mizuki said in response to Naruto's astonished look not John's whisper, "you're the container! You're the embodiment of the Nine Tailed Fox! The demon that destroyed our home, now you know why everyone resent you, you're nothing more then a demon who should have been killed years ago," as Mizuki snickered as Naruto looked broken as John gritted his teeth.

"You bastard," he growled trying to get up, but the pain was too much as he collapsed on the ground before he watched as Naruto stood there with a shocked look on his face.

"Now that you know…it's time for you to die!" Mizuki said as he threw a huge shuriken towards Naruto, who was still in shock and therefore did not even see the threat, John cried out for Naruto to move but was unable to defend the boy himself. However someone else did in his place as Naruto's eyes widened to see that it was Iruka who had taken the shuriken to his back as he groaned in pain.

"I-Iruka-sensei," Naruto said in disbelief, "why?"

"Why?" Iruka asked, "Because it's simple, despite the fact you contain the fox, despite everything everyone says…I know the truth. You're not the fox, you're Naruto Uzumaki, the hyper-active knuckleheaded ninja and…and you're like my little brother to me," as Naruto looked at him.

"He's right," John said as Naruto looked at him, "whatever that bastard says, to me you're Naruto, the little boy I saved in the alley from those men. The boy who works hard on his dream, who never gives up, who wants to be acknowledged…I may not know much about this world, hell I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, but you're not a demon that is for sure."

"John-san," Naruto whispered as Mizuki's eyes twitched.

"Enough of this, I'll need to finish all of you off and learn what's inside that scroll," as Naruto's eyes flashed with determination as he stepped up.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friends any longer," he said as he cast the Tiger sign before calling out, "Taju Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" as hundreds of Narutos appeared out of thin air as Mizuki gaped at him.

"T-that should be impossible," Mizuki stuttered as all the Naruto clones smiled.

"We'll show you what happens when you mess with my friends," they said in unison as they then charged at Mizuki as he yelped and quickly got a faceful of fists. By the time ANBU and soldiers from Fort Hood arrived Mizuki was out cold as ANBU restrained him and took him in while Iruka was brought to a hospital while John would be treated at Fort Hood as it was closer to their present location, Naruto looked back at John and then hurried to join the others happy that he at least had a friend in John.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone, thanks to all who reviewed, favourite and followed this story I really appreciate it. I'm sorry this chapter is going to be a little shorter then the others, but university has started for me so I might post slower then usual, but please bear with me and I look forward to any suggestions on what should happen next. Until then!**

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A week and a half later since the incident passed before Burton came into the tent where John, Alex, and Alice were discussing things. The two soldiers then stood up and saluted, "At ease," Burton said as the soldiers relaxed, "how are you doing PFC?" he asked John.

"Fine sir, wounds are healing up quite nicely," he groaned.

"Think you're up for a mission?" Burton asked.

"Always sir, what do you need?" John asked.

"I need you, Alice, and Alex to go on a mission with the shinobis, a joint-mission so to speak," Burton said as the soldiers were surprised that they were requested by Konoha, "after Bradley's intervention the other week the Hokage decided to further cement Konoha's and Fort Hood's relationship by allowing a few soldiers to accompany them on a mission.

"What rank sir?" John asked.

"C rank, just a simple delivery mission, it would be D rank, but the object is of high importance to the village hence the increase in rank. They don't expect anything too dangerous to come out, perhaps some bandits, but you've already got experience in that department."

"Understood sir, when do we go?" John asked.

"Tomorrow, but today you're coming with me to the Hokage tower to meet the shinobi team," Burton said as the soldiers nodded and went to the Hokage Tower. They were met with Sarutobi sitting on a desk, as usual, along with four shinobis, three were obviously Genin due to their age, while the other one was a tall woman with long untamed hair, red eyes, makeup, and red and white uniform.

"Ah hello John-san, how are you today? Your wound healing fine?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes sir it is, I'm ready for the mission," John said.

"Excellent, I trust that Jack-san has told you about the mission?" Sarutobi asked as they nodded, "good. This is Team Kurenai, they will be the one accompanying you on your mission," he said.

"My name is Kurenai Yuhi, it's a pleasure to meet you," the long haired woman said bowing.

"I'm Shino Aburame," a boy wearing a large jacket with an upturned collar and sunglasses.

"Kiba Inuzuka," a boy wearing a fur jacket said, he had markings on his face while a dog yapped with him, "and this is Akamaru."

"M-my name is Hinata Hyuga," a shy girl with white eyes replied bowing, "it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you all," John said still a little unnerved that young kids are used for missions like these, "so I suppose we should prepare the Bradley for-"

"Actually we're not using the Bradley, it's too inconspicuous and we need to treat this with utter discretion," Burton said.

"Well how far is the place we're supposed to drop it off at?" Alex asked.

"At least a week's worth of walking," Kurenai replied.

"A week?" Alice exclaimed.

"Don't sweat it," Kiba said, "the worst anyone ever gone off on a mission was half a year, but that was for an A rank mission I believe."

"At least more men then," John pleaded, "just two more to make up a squad."

"No, the group is big enough as it is," Sarutobi said, "anymore would make people suspicious."

"But-" Alice began.

"That's enough corporal," Burton replied, "I know it may seem like a very unlikely situation, but that's how this world works. We'll just have to deal with it."

"No problem sir, we'll try our best," John said, "where are we rendezvousing tomorrow?"

"The gate at six in the morning," Kurenai said.

"Roger, we'll be there an hour early just in case," John replied. The next day, just as light was starting to show up, the three soldiers were at the gate with their packed things; they had learnt to live with only what they needed, it was the ideal way for a soldier to live. It seemed that the shinobis lived by the same principle as they had brought light packs with them, while Shino was carrying a green parcel wrapped around his back.

"That's the thing we're supposed to deliver?" Alex asked, "Don't you guys have post offices for these kinds of things?"

"We do, but sometimes the client has uh…sensitive or important things inside of the parcel so they want us to deliver it safely," Kurenai replied as Alex shrugged and hanged back a little. The group then began their journey as they walked for most of the part talking to each other, Kurenai being the most silent, while the Genins talked animatedly to the soldiers about their world.

"So Hinata," Alice said as the two girls hanged back from the boys, "you're from the Hyuga family right?"

"H-hai," Hinata said shyly.

"I heard the Hyuga family are the most well respected family in Konoha, it must be tough to live under such scrutiny," Alice said.

"H-hai…it is," Hinata said looking down.

"Though its harder for the main family isn't it," Alice said unaware of Hinata's origin, "I mean the heir must be under a lot of pressure all the time."

"She is," Hinata whispered softly as Alice looked at her.

"She?" Alice asked.

"I'm the heiress…or at least I was," Hinata said as Alice gaped.

"You? Seriously? Wait…what do you mean you were the heiress," Alice said.

Hinata looked nervous as she looked away from her, before Kurenai intervened, "Alice-san, if I may ask could you please not talk to Hinata anymore about her family," she requested politely as Alice looked at her for a moment before saying that she'll drop the subject though her eyes then glazed over as she continued walking with a sad expression on her face.

"Huh? Wonder what's up with Alice and Hinata?" Alex asked.

"Alice is probably thinking about her own situation," John said as Alex looked confused, "don't worry it's nothing," John replied as Alex dropped it though he, Kiba and Shino became confused by what John meant. Six days passed without any complications, and the group was starting to think that nothing major would happen and that they would be home without any injuries, of course the expression don't count your chickens before they hatch remain true for missions as suddenly a group of bandits ambushed them.

"Protect the parcel," Kurenai said as they moved in a circular formation, protecting Kiba who was carrying the parcel, as the soldiers took out their handguns. No use in using higher caliber weapons unless needed as they shot at anyone that came close to them, however they then looked at each other and with a silent agreement holstered their handguns as they assumed CQC positions. One bandit charged in as Alice grabbed his hand and kicked at his leg resulting in him falling down before using a palm strike against his face as his nose exploded with blood before another strike knocked him out. Alex and John were facing two thugs as they disarmed them of their swords with a twist of their wrist before giving them a hard kick to the head, knocking them out, they then followed by taking down any bandits that tried to attack them, sometimes fighting several at one time, as the shinobis easily countered the thugs.

After a while the bandits decided to cut their losses as they ran away threatening them that their leader would kill them the next time they meet, "Well that was friendly," Alice huffed, "what's inside the parcel that people want so badly?"

"Could be anything, money, jewelry, secret information, anything that's worth stealing and is worth a lot to the other party," Kurenai said, "though it does make me wonder as well."

"Well we can ask the village head once we deliver this to him," John said, "it's only an hour's walk from here so let's get going as fast as possible." The group then resumed their walk and sure enough an hour later they were inside the village and heading towards a big hut that housed the village head.

"Ah wonderful, wonderful, you brought it here safely," the village head said delightfully.

"Yes," Kurenai said, "however we do have some questions for you," she said.

"Huh? What is it?" the village head asked.

"An hour before we arrived we were attacked by a large group of bandits, they seemed pretty determined to get whatever is in the parcel," Kurenai said, "so what is in the parcel?"

"T-that's none of your business," the village head said.

"Usually no, but I have a feeling that it's something you wouldn't have been able to obtain through normal channels," Kurenai said.

"And I say that it's none of your business, you've done your mission, I'll give the payment to Konoha soon," the village head insisted.

"Look if it's something dangerous then we are still obliged to protect it even after delivery in case it's going to get stolen," Kurenai insisted as the village head opened his mouth to respond, but then an explosion rocked the village as John sighed, this was going to be a long mission.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello everyone, thanks to all those that reviewed, fav and followed the story I really appreciate it. Hope to see more reviews and also tell me what you think should happen in regards to the Sound-Sand invasion of Konoha? Updates might be slow due to school, but I'll have it up as fast as I can. Till then!**

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"Now what?" Kiba asked as the explosions rocked the village as the group turned to see the same bandits rushing towards them again, "They just never learn do they?" Kiba asked with a feral grin on his face as the group got into a defensive formation.

"We'll protect the parcel while you guys take care of the bandits, anyone get too close we'll shoot them," Alice said as the soldiers drew their handguns as the shinobis looked at Kurenai who nodded. The shinobis then spread out as they began engaging the enemy, Kiba using his clan's attacks to take care of large groups of enemies, Shino engulfing people with his insects, Hinata taking care of individual people with expert precision while Kureai used her Genjutsus to trap and kill her enemies. Anyone else that got through the shinobis, or were missed, found themselves with bullets in their head as the bandits got the idea that the solders were no ordinary people. It should have been an easy win, but their advantage were soon evened out when several wind blades threw the shinobis backwards as a lone shinobi with black hair and a long beard dressed in oriental robe walked towards them.

"Who's he?" Kiba asked as the soldiers fired bullets at him only for them to be deflected by the wind.

"I've heard of strange people who use strange weapons to kill even the strongest bandits, it seems the stories are not mistaken," the shinobi said.

"Damn…I know who he is," Kurenai said biting her lip, "he's an A-rank missing nin from Sunagakure who specializes in wind jutsus."

"Oh great, just our luck to get the wind guy," John said, "can you handle him?"

"I can," Kurenai said as she stepped up.

"Ah…Kurenai Yuhi, the Genjutsu mistress, how ideal that you should fight me," the man said, "I've been looking forward to it."

"Why's that?" Kurenai asked.

"Simply for the thrill of fighting a powerful opponent," the man replied as Kurenai took out a kunai as she then casted a series of hand seals before she seemingly vanished. The man then looked down to see trees coiling around him as he smiled, "ah yes…Magen: Jubaku Satsu…your signature genjutsu," he said as he smirked, "however…a simple pain is sufficient," he said as he bit his cheek as the genjutsu broke surprising Kurenai before he then backhanded her into a tree.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba called out as he charged at the man, but he was then stopped by a young girl no older then 16 who kicked Kiba in the face and sent him flying backwards. Like the man she was dressed in oriental robes and had black hair that was tied in two braids as her black eyes bore deeply into the Genins.

"You will not interrupt master's fight," she said softly, "that is his order."

"Damn it, who are you?" Kiba asked.

"I have no name, master only calls me Doll," Doll replied.

"Okay that's just some sick naming convention this guy has," Alex muttered.

"What else is new in this world?" John asked, "Uh…hate to break it to you guys, but can you handle her? We don't really want to shoot her unless we have to," he said nervously.

"The hell? Aren't you guys soldiers?" Kiba asked angrily.

"They have different ethics when it comes to combat Kiba," Shino said, "to them people our age are not warriors, they are still children, but we are not bounded by those same conventions," he said as his bugs crawled out of his sleeves.

"Ew, are those bugs coming out of his sleeves?" Alice asked a little bit green.

"They are called Kikaichu, we the Aburame clan are instilled with them at birth, they feed on our chakra and in return they do our bidding," Shino said calmly revealing no emotion at Alice's words.

"And I thought I've seen everything," John said scratching his head, "man this world just keeps on surprising me," as Kiba and Hinata looked at him before Kiba shrugged, "alright we'll protect the parcel while you guys deal with her."

"Sounds good to me," Kiba said as he charged at Doll, "Akamaru!" he called out as his dog barked in response, "Gatsuga!" he called out as he and Akamaru spun at a ferocious speed as it tunneled towards Doll who simply jumped up high in the air.

"Hijutsu: Mushidama," Shino called out as a stream of insects flew out of his sleeve and began to head towards Doll. However the girl then drew a sword from her back as she pointed at the approaching insects, "Kakushi ken tekunikku: Kaze no uzu (Hidden Sword Technique: Wind Vortex)," as a wind vortex shot out of the tip of her sword and destroyed the insects inside of it.

"Crap, she's a wind user too?" Kiba said.

"My insects," Shino said.

"H-how do we fight her now?" Hinata asked as Doll merely landed on her feet and stood in between the two shinobis and the Genins.

"I will not fight you, but I will be forced to if you continue to insist on disturbing my master's fight," she said as Kurenai cried out in pain as she slammed onto the ground.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Kiba called out as he growled in anger.

"Damn it, we can't just sit here and do nothing," Alex said to Alice and John.

"I know, but I don't want to kill her, she's only a kid," John said.

"So are they," Alex said gesturing to the Genins, "and if we don't help them they're going to be dead as well as us."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" John asked as Alex pondered on this for a moment before going to Shino and whispered something in his ear. Shino perked his ears as he listened to him before nodding, he then sent a stream of insects towards Doll as she widened her eyes.

"It's useless," she told him as she used the same sword technique again, but Shino pressed on the attack as Doll continued to demolish the insects until a small round object rolled next to Doll as she looked at it.

"Sorry kiddo, hope you understand," Alex said as Doll gasped and attempted to jump away from the blast, however the M67 grenade exploded sending shrapnel everywhere as Doll cried out in pain and was sent flying backwards before landing and laying still.

"Doll!" the shinobi cried out as he kicked Kurenai away from him before going to her, numerous wounds were around her, and although she got out of the 5 meters range where it would be fatal she was still heavily injured, "damn you…I didn't think you would have more weapons," he growled as he carried Doll bridal style and quickly beat a hasty retreat.

"That was close," Kurenai said, "a few more minutes and he would have beaten me senseless," she said as her face was heavily bruised and she was limping a bit as Hinata went up to her.

"Are you alright Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"I will be…once I rest," Kurenai said resting against a tree as she panted slightly.

"I know C rank missions pose a threat, but do they include enemy shinobis?" John asked as Kurenai shook her head.

"Sometimes yes, but this was supposed to be a simple delivery mission, we expected bandits but nothing more then that," Kurenai replied tiredly.

"I understand," John said, "rest, we'll cover you," he said as Kurenai nodded and drifted off to sleep while Alice tended to her.

"She's bad, like really bad, she needs to go back to Konoha pronto," Alice said.

"Can we consider this mission a success?" Alex asked Shino, who seemed to be the most calm of the group.

"Technically the mission has already been accomplished because we delivered the parcel to its intended destination," Shino replied.

"So we can just get out of here now right?" John asked as Shino nodded.

"However," he added making John stop, "we encountered enemy forces who clearly want the parcel and therefore we must still protect it until we are certain the threat is over."

"Damn," John muttered, "we're going to need reinforcements," John said.

"But it'll still take at least a whole day even if they did use the Bradley to get here, we don't know when the ninja will attack again," Alice said.

"It'll take him most of the day to dress those wounds if he can," Alex said, "I mean dress Doll's wound, plus he has to rest up after his fight with Kurenai, so it should be enough time for reinforcements to get here."

"But still, sending a request for help will take a week," Kiba protested.

"That's if you're using old fashioned dogs or bird messengers," Alex said as John smirked as Alex went on one knee, "boys and girls I give you the future," he said as John began fiddling with a portable army radio that squads carry around when on missions, it was already dialed back to the communication quarter of Fort Hood so they would get a direct response.

"This is PFC Bradley requesting Fort Hood, do you read me?" John said.

"This is Fort Hood, what's your situation?" an operator asked.

"Requesting reinforcements at location," as John took out a GPS and called out the latitude and longitude displayed, "we've got an enemy shinobi and our only Jounin's in critical condition."

"How many hostile?" the operator asked.

"One, no make that two, enemy shinobis and god knows how many bandits heading towards us," John said.

"Roger that, we'll try to coordinate something and send reinforcements, for now standby and hold out," the operator said before blinking out.

"Well that's that, now let's get Kurenai to a safe place so she can heal," John said as Alex and Kiba picked up Kurenai and placed her inside the village's head home. When the elder came in John approached him.

"No more games, you tell us right now what's in that parcel or we're leaving you here for the wolves," he warned.

"J-John! You can't threaten a client!" Alice exclaimed as the old man quivered in fear.

"It's nothing, it's just supposed to be an ordinary jewel, it's said that it has the power to find rare materials in the earth, we're a poor village and we just want money to sustain ourselves. We never thought that others would seek the same object," the old man said.

John looked at the old man to see if he was lying before sighing and pushing him away, "Just get inside and stay there until I tell you that it's safe," he said as the old man nodded and quickly went into his home and hid inside.

"So now what? We just sit here until the shinobi shows up again?" Kiba asked.

"No we gotta plan, we can't hope that reinforcements get here before they come back again, our best shot is to ambush the enemy shinobi and let us take care of him," John said.

"And how do you plan on ambushing the guy?" Alice asked, "He knows about us already."

"Don't worry, I have a plan," John said as he gathered everyone and began to discuss his plan.

When the enemy shinobi next appeared he had a retinue of bandits with him as he looked around the village, "Now where are those annoying Genins and those strange warriors?" he asked himself.

"Over here!" Kiba said jumping out as he faced the enemy shinobi as he gave a feral grin.

"You again? Where's that teacher of yours?" he asked.

"I'm enough to handle you," Kiba said with a grin, "you're not that tough."

"It would be wise to keep your mouth shut, especially when you're facing against a higher class shinobi," the man said.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of your charge? The girl named Doll," Kiba asked.

"She is fine, she is but a mere tool for my grand designs, she has no qualms with a little pain," the shinobi said as Kiba grinned.

"You are one sick person, come on Akamaru!" Kiba said as Akamaru yelped, "Gatsuga!" Kiba cried out before he and Akamaru spun at a fast speed as they zoned in on the shinobi who merely jumped higher.

"You will need to do better then that," the shinobi said as he made some hand seals, "Earth Release: Mud Shot," as he fired some muds from his mouth but they were immediately broken by the Gatsuga. Shino then came out of the bushes and fired his own jutsu at the man as streams of insects as he fired a blast of wind from his hand to disperse the insects as he grimaced, "not a bad try, but individually you will not be able to defeat me."

"Then perhaps that means we'll just need to work together," Kiba said as he spun around again and went into the air while at the same time Shino continued to keep the shinobi occupied so that Kiba was able to get a hit, however the shinobi was able to isolate them quickly and then take them down as Kiba and Akamaru were smashed onto the ground while Shino was having difficult in a taijutsu battle as he wasn't used to it, Hinata then jumped from the bush as she tried to use her family style to cripple the shinobi but the man was able to dodge it at the last minute as he landed on the ground.

"Your team work isn't bad, but you lack…finesse," the man said, "you will need to improve before you can defeat me."

"I think we're plenty enough for you," Kiba said.

"Hmm indeed though you seemed to hide behind those strange warriors of yours, speaking of which where are they? I would have assumed they came out to defend the parcel as soon as I arrived," the man asked looking around.

"Ran away, couldn't handle it," Kiba said with a shrug, "don't need them anyways."

"I think you do need them, children like you, cannot defeat someone like me," the shinobi said spreading his arm out, "I'm sure you would've begged them to stay with you."

"Like we'll ever beg," Kiba growled, he was really getting on Kiba's nerve, although John and the others didn't run away and were doing their part of the plan it still pissed him off that they did have to ask for his help. He then shook his head, no he couldn't think like that, John and the others were allies, Kiba would ask for their help and they'll give it willingly.

"Hit a nerve did I? How pathetic," the shinobi drawled, "let me put you out of your misery," he then bent his legs to go on the attack when three grenades rolled beside him, recognizing it as the object that hurt Doll the man jumped back as the grenades exploded, when the dust settled the man was injured only on his left leg as it was shredded to pieces and blood was coming out of it as he grunted and fell on one knee.

"Gotcha!" Kiba said with a grin as the three soldiers came out of their hiding spots, "that wasn't a bad idea John."

"Eh you learn things once you go into combat," John said as he pointed his weapon at the man, "who are you and what do you want with the parcel?"

"I go by many names," the shinobi said forcing a grin though it turned into a semi-grimace, semi-grin at the same time, "as for the parcel? My employers have use for it, far more use then what this village would use it for."

"Well it's our job to protect it, so I guess we'll just have to take down your employer as well hmm?" John asked.

"Heh…you'll never be able to beat him, he has all the local bandits under his thumb, even with your superior weapons, you cannot defeat sheer numbers," the man said, he didn't know that John had already called for reinforcements nor would he need to know.

"We'll just see about that," John said, "tie him up and make sure it's tight."

"Uhm…a shinobi has different methods for escaping…" Hinata commented.

"Indeed, the best way to ensure a shinobi stays still is to knock him out," Shino agreed.

"Oh man, this just gets more complicated by the second," John groaned before he used the butt of his rifle to hit the side of the man's head as he went out cold, "alright let's take him in now, hopefully reinforcements gets here before we get swarmed by those bandits."

"They should be no problem," Shino said, "the greatest threat has been eliminated."

"Not yet, still got that kid remember?" John said, "If she comes back for him then we gotta be prepared," as a vortex of wind then sliced through the forest, "or she comes now and we gotta fight again," John sighed turning to see a wounded Doll panting and looking at them.

"Give him back…" she panted, "give him back now!"

"You surrender first, then we'll talk," John said.

"No, no surrender," Doll said, "give him back now!"

"Surrender now!" John retorted louder.

"Give him back now!" Doll said as a powerful whirlwind surrounded her before she dashed towards the group.

"Oh crap, not good," Alex said firing off several rounds, but they were merely deflected sideways as the whirlwind got closer to them, however it then stopped as Doll skidded to a halt in front of them, her wounds opening up as she looked utterly exhausted.

"Your wounds are too great," Shino stated, "you cannot fight us in that condition, surrender is your most optimal choice."

"Damn it," Doll cursed before losing consciousness as she was also carried to the same place as the shinobi where she was tied up along with him.

"Now what?" Kiba asked, "What if the bandits come?"

"I think we can take on some bandits," John said, "nothing we didn't fight before."

"Yeah I suppose so," Kiba said, "but I just can't shake the feeling when that guy said that his employer had all the local bandits on his payroll…this area isn't know for its bandits, but…"

"Don't worry about it too much," John said, "hopefully reinforcements will come long before the bandits start showing up, right now let's just relax a bit and take care of our wounded." The rest of the day was spent in taking of Kurenai and anyone else that was wounded in the attack, they also made sure that the two shinobis were kept in a safe place where they wouldn't be able to cause any problems as they made sure that the parcel was in a safe place.

"Hard to imagine that one small thing can cause this much of a problem," Alice said as the two of them looked at the package.

"Greed is the number one bane of human existence," John said as Alice laughed.

"That is so like you, having some sort of 'quote' handy," Alice said, "but seriously…have you ever seen anyone hire assassins just to get a single jewel?"

"I've heard of armies being hired to get a single person, but no this is kind of different I guess," John said, "everything here is different…much different then our world."

"Well at least we're kind of adapting well to it," Alice said, "Adam's…adapting, but slowly."

"He's still hung up on the whole 'children are soldiers' thing isn't he?" John asked tiredly, "I'm getting tired of his arguments."

"I'm sorry," Alice said apologetically, "he's usually not like this…I don't know what's got him so riled up."

"Me neither, he was already like that when me and you first met him," John said, "I was hoping to know the reason further down the track, but it seems he's closed off to everyone except a few these days."

"He'll get better, I'm sure of it," Alice said as John nodded and the group then spent the rest of the day resting and building some basic defenses in case the bandits do show up. John then woke up the next morning with the portal radio calling in as he walked to it and picked up the receiver.

"Team Omega report in," the receiver said.

"Team Omega reporting," John said, "are we getting that back up or not?"

"Backup has just been approved and they're on enroute, ETA is at least six hours, what's your status?" the operator asked.

"The two shinobi hostiles are down, all that's left are just some bandits," John said, "however we do not know how many bandits we're going to be facing so back up is still needed."

"Roger that we'll relay that information back to the back up team, until then hold out your position," the operator replied.

"Got it," John said as he put the receiver down and sighed, six hours…six hours was a long time and anything could happen in between then. However he took comfort in the fact that their biggest threat were neutralized and all that remained were the small fries, they shouldn't have any problems with those.

"What's going on?" Kurenai asked as John turned his head.

"Hey, feeling better?" he asked as Kurenai smiled and nodded.

"Yes I am, Shino already filled me in on what happened, I'm impressed that you were able to take down two shinobis," she said.

"Well one of them was already incapacitated long before we even did anything," John admitted, "but yeah we took them down."

"Thank you," Kurenai said, "for taking care of my Genins."

"No problem, it's what we do," John said, "back up is on the way though it'll take around six hours for them to get here. We only have the bandits left, if they decide to attack us that is, though the guy did warn us about his employer…something about having the local bandits under his thumb."

"That shouldn't pose a problem," Kurenai said, "at best it's probably twenty to forty bandits…Kiba's Gatsuga should get rid the majority of them easily."

"True," John replied as silence took over the conversation before John got up, "I better wake the others."

"Yes I'll go out front and see if there's any enemy lurking about," Kurenai said as she walked out the front door, John looking at her intently before he shook his head and walked into the living room where the others were sleeping.

He shook Alice awake as she jolted up, "What happened?" she asked.

"Nothing, I'm just waking you up, back up's on the way," John said as Alice stood up and stretched her arms.

"How long?" she asked.

"Six hours away," John said.

"Well it's shorter then normal," Alice said, "but do we need them anymore since we got the bigger threat eliminated."

"I'm not taking any chances, until we got other orders I'm going to stay here with Kurenai's team," John said, "and that means taking into account every worst scenario."

"You do know that's my job as a Corporal right?" Alice smirked.

"Well…I might as well do it since I'm that kind of guy," John said with a shrug as the rest of the team began to woke up.

"Is Kurenai-sensei alright?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah she's fine," John said, "she's out front now checking the area. Reinforcements going to arrive soon, once they're here they'll give us our next set of orders, if we're lucky we'll be home soon."

"Well the mission is completed, we got two shinobi enemies in our custody, it's a good morning indeed," Kiba said with a grin.

"Don't be too lax now," Alice warned, "you can never relax in a battlefield until you're back at base and in friendly territory."

"Words of wisdom from a veteran of combat," Shino said as Kurenai came back.

"Well there doesn't seem to be any more bandits laying around, I think we'll be safe until the others get here," she reported as suddenly explosions rang out the place, "what? Impossible I checked the area just now," she exclaimed as everyone got their gear and went out of the house to see that the bandits were approaching the village in full force as they threw makeshift bombs at the village.

"IEDs…god I hate them," Alice groaned.

"IED?" Kiba asked.

"It stands for Improvised Explosive Device, basically a home-made bomb very dangerous, and it could be in the shape of anything, even a dead body," Alex said wrinkling his nose.

"Uh…yeah sure," Kiba said half getting the explanation.

"Alright let's just stand our ground and hang on until reinforcements arrived, they shouldn't have too much of those IEDs right?" John said as one went flying over him and exploding spectacularly above them forcing them to duck for cover; the shinobis then went in and fought the bandits head on while the soldiers provided them with covering fire, as much as they can without hitting their own allies, however this proved to be quite difficult as the bombs kept hitting the shinobis even if it wasn't directly as soon most of them had scratches on them from the shrapnel.

Before long they were backed against the wall, even with John's team backing them up there were just too many home-made grenades being thrown around, even John had taken one as his leg was a mess, not enough to completely make him a disable but enough to cause a lot of pain, "Where the hell is that back up?" Alex asked.

"Beats me," John yelled back as he fired his handgun at an approaching bandit.

"Well they better get here soon or else we're finished," Alice said before ducking beneath a blade and countering. Similarily the shinobis were hard pressed and they were running out of energy, Kurenai's team were exactly the type of team for battle or long fights, therefore they were unprepared for something like this. Then just when it seemed that they were out of energy a blaze of gunfire echoed in as bandits fell by the dozens. John then looked up to see several Humvees rushing towards them, their guns blazing, before soldiers clambered out of the vehicle and began providing assistance to them. It wasn't long before the bandits were routed as they began to flee from the onslaught, the leader tried to escape but Shino captured him with his bugs as he was dragged before them. "Well, well what do we have here?" John asked, "The leader of the local bandits around this region?"

"Please spare me, I'm just a simple warlord," the man pleaded now all of his bravado gone in front of the shinobis.

"Easy we're not going to kill you," Alice said, "we're just going to take you in for that bounty on your head."

"Wait! I can provide you with information!" the man said, "There isn't anything that goes around this place that I don't know about, I can even provide you with men if you need them."

"We don't need men," Alice said, "but…we could use the information depending on what it is."

"Are you sure Alice?" John asked.

"Sure, I'll clear it with Burton, I'm sure he'll agree with me," Alice before shooing the man away and warning him not to attack the village unless he wants the US troops knocking on his door.

"Thank you," the elder said, "now we can find those minerals and expand our village."

"Yeah," Alice said partially caring, "just be careful alright guys?"

"Thank you," the villagers said as the troops began to move out.

"Didn't think they send this many," John said to a nearby soldier, "why the large numbers?"

"Well when we heard 'enemy shinobi' we thought we might just overdo it a little," the soldier said as John took a rest, "rough mission?"

"Yeah…yeah you can say that," John said as he closed his eyes for a moment before he was out cold from exhaustion.


	8. Chapter 8

"So tell me more about this exam of yours," John asked one day after the mission was done, by now they had been in this new world for exactly two months. It had been a wild ride that was for sure, but so far they had no clue how to get back home nor could they contact back home so for now John and Fort Hood had been interacting with Konoha and more soldiers were becoming accustomed to the strange custom of letting children fight, as they had begun to come into the village themselves and talk to the locals. At the same time the majority of the population has also gotten accustomed to the strange warriors and they had began to be comfortable around them, therefore information were gathered among the soldiers though the soldiers were tight lipped about their own secrets, so the relationship was still slightly unstable.

"It's a simple exam that tests the Genins do to see if they are ready to be Chunins, the next rank up," Kurenai said.

"After Chunins are Jonins, you guys right? You have an exam for that too?" John asked as Kurenai nodded, "So...in this Chunin exam what exactly does it include?"

"It changes depending on who hosts it, and we can't talk about it in case they're listening," Kurenai said, "but it's nothing what you're thinking."

"And how do you know what I'm thinking?" John asked as Kurenai smiled.

"You're worried that it includes killing other Genins, though I won't lie and say it doesn't happen, it is an uncommon thing to occur so you don't have anything to worry about," Kurenai said.

"I do worry especially when it's uncommon, not rarely," John said, "well I'm sure your team can try again next year."

"I'm thinking of submitting their names this year," Kurenai said as John spluttered his drink in surprise.

"What! They just graduated," John exclaimed.

"I have every confidence in them," Kurenai defended, "they can handle it well," as John looked unsure, "Team 7 and Team 10 are also sending in their Genins despite the fact that their Genins had only graduated recently."

"Who's on Team 7 and Team 10?" John asked.

"Team 7 consists of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno," Kurenai said as John's eyes widened slightly, "while Team 10 consists of Ino Yamanaka, Shikimaru Nara and Chouji Akamichi."

"9 rookies," John muttered, "man you guys are something. But hey, if you guys have confidence then I can't really interfere," John said with a smile.

"You're different," Kurenai said after looking at him for a moment, "you're not like the others, they keep complaining about our world and how we are harsh and cruel to children. But this is our way of life, it was their choice to become shinobis, that is the cost they must pay."

"You have to understand our world to understand our feelings, child labor used to also occur in our world and it was abolished after some years, it's frowned upon in our world though it does still occur in other worlds," John said, "we've faced things that are unimaginable in your world...just thank whatever god you worship, if you do, that you don't have the technology we possess."

"For future references most are Buddhist in this world or the more ancient religion of Shinotism," Kurenai said absentmindedly.

"Both are in our world," John commented as Kurenai smiled.

"Thank you," Kurenai said as John looked at her, "for supporting my team on the last mission."

"Your team would've done the same for us," John said.

"But you went beyond it, you could have escaped and waited for reinforcements," Kurenai retorted.

"The colonel asked us to reinforce the relationship between Fort Hood and Konoha, how could we say no to that?" John retorted back, "Besides...it's not in my nature to leave my comrades behind," as Kurenai's eyes widened as she smiled.

"I see, I'm glad you came on then John-san," Kurenai said.

"When does the exam start?" John asked.

"Next week, it'll be a little busier around Konoha, I think your leader is talking to Hokage-sama right now," Kurenai said.

"Probably security details, that's the only thing we can do."

"I wouldn't mind having Fort Hood warriors protecting Konoha."

"It's soldiers, not warriors, we're soldiers."

"Soldiers then," Kurenai said as the two of them then talked about other things. After the little meeting John was walking around Konoha to get his bearing around the places, just in case he was sent to patrol the area, when he bumped into Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, how ya been?" John asked.

"John-niisan!" Naruto exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a while, where have you been?"

"I've been on jobs, protecting VIPs and whatnot, how about you? Any exciting mission?" John asked.

"Yeah..." Naruto said sadly, "just came back from one," as he narrated everything that happened in the Land of Waves as John could see the sadness on Naruto's face when he talked about Haku as John could understand, to lose someone precious to you, a potential friend, simply because of how the world worked sucked, big time, as John put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"I'm sorry to hear about Haku, he sounded he would have become a great friend," John said in sympathy.

"I'll be fine," Naruto said, "I can't keep crying about it forever."

"Sometimes you need to cry, it's not a sign of weakness," John said.

"I'm not crying!" Naruto snapped, "I'm...I'm just sad, I didn't have enough power to help him, I wish to become stronger..."

"Strength doesn't mean power," John said as Naruto looked at him, "strength means the ability to change yourself in need be, the ability to change the attitudes of someone perhaps, or even the ability to change the world...strength doesn't mean power...but strength is gauged by the power of your heart, by what you do with your own strengths," as Naruto's eyes widened in understanding as he jumped up.

"Alright! Then I'll train, and train, and train. Then I'll be more powerful, so powerful that I'll change the world, I'll become the Hokage that wants to help everyone, someone that people can depend on!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's a good attitude to take, don't look back, continue on walking no matter what happens," John said.

"Is that your philosophy?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah..." John said looking into space for a moment, "yeah you can say that."

"Then I'll make sure to remember that philosophy, it sounds pretty good," Naruto said with a smile as John smiled back as well.

"Good luck out there Naruto," John replied, "and be careful."

"Sure thing," Naruto replied.

"You know when I thought security the worst that I imagined myself doing is finding some conspiracy that someone wants to kill the Hokage, I did not expect myself to be right in the middle of a goddamn invasion!" John complained as a fireball sailed past him and slammed into a building. As the giant snakes that had attacked the walls continued on their assault.

"Stop complaining and keep firing," Alice said as she screamed into the radio for backup, anything that would turn the tide.

"Damn it, how the hell did they not see this coming?" John asked firing his assault rifle as he, Alice and the other soldiers retreated along with the Konoha shinobis. Even though Fort Hood were helping Konoha with security issues such as making checks on various places and guarding important infrastructure, however that had been limited to only a handful and the rest were sitting back at base, or hopefully they would be scrambling everything once they get wind of the situation in Konoha.

"Not sure, we can add that to the numerous questions the Colonel's going to ask them once this whole mess is over, if we survive that is," Alice said as they ran back to another sector as they began to hold their grounds and waited for reinforcements or something to happen that would help them.

Meanwhile back at base the entire base was scrambling after calls of distress were received, "How the hell did you not see this coming?" Burton asked as Alex was frantically trying to get the radar to work and figure out how many people they were facing.

"Radars are meant to pick up airplanes and any electronic things, not people sir," Alex said as Burton growled, this was starting to get messy. They'll need to work fast, he's men were at Konoha and with this whole mess their lives could be in jeopardy.

"Scramble everything we have, where are they attacking?" Burton asked.

"So far they're only attacking the North side of the village, but reports indicate that they could be flanking the village soon," Alex said.

"Scramble all the gunships we have and have them support the troops on the ground, have bombers go and bomb the hell out of those giant snakes, and have all army and marine units go to Konoha and take out the enemy troops," Burton ordered as the base went on full alert as tanks, IVFs and jets of all kinds went out of the base. B-1 Lancers flew off from the base and headed towards the snakes, flying well out of striking distance before they unleashed their payloads as Mk 82 bombs were dropped on the snakes as they hissed in pain before they exploded into nothing more then bloody stumps and pulps, then those with spare ordinances bombed the shinobis that were giving support to the invading shinobis as they were blown into ashes. Meanwhile M1 Abram tanks and Strykers entered Konoha as the marines and army soldiers disembarked from the Strykers and began shooting any shinobi that they met, after confirming they weren't allies, as the tanks shot at any stationary shinobis with their cannons so as to not give them any chances.

"Alright, that's what I'm talking about," John cried out upon seeing the military forces here as Spectre gunships flew above them and unleashed hell on the enemy shinobis as they cut through them like hot knife through butter, it wasn't long before the enemy started to lose ground as the Konoha-US military began to gain back their grounds though not without losses as a group of soldiers were unlucky enough to be in the path of a fireball as they were burnt to a crisp, John winced at that but had to push on as this was a war and casualties do happen in wars.

"Where else is the fighting going on?" one of the higher rank officer asked.

"I think I heard some explosions in the arena, the Hokage and the other Genins are there," John said as the officer nodded and raced towards the arena while John and the others cleaned up the village itself. Yugao, and the other ANBU, were at the arena watching helplessly as their Hokage fought with his former student wishing that they were able to help him but were unable to enter the barrier as anyone who touched it would be burnt to nothing as she gritted her teeth.

"Hey, you guys alright?" someone shouted as Yugao turned to see the soldiers from Fort Hood arriving in the arena taking care of any straggling enemy shinobis.

"We're fine, but Hokage-sama is inside and we can't get through because of the barrier," Yugao shouted, the man who shouted looked at the barrier as he tilted his head before asking.

"Is the top closed off too?"

"I don't think so," Yugao said unsure of herself.

"Let me get you something that can help you," the man said as he spoke into his radio, a few minutes later a UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter flew to the arena and landed on it as Yugao's, and anyone who was a shinobi really, as the ANBU jumped down, "this will help you get over the top, just make sure to double check you can enter before going down. Good luck."

"Thank you," Yugao said as she entered the helicopter, the other ANBUs were hesitant at first but seeing the Hokage fighting hard they entered the helicopter and hanged on to anything they could.

"First time flying?" the pilot asked before chuckling, "Don't worry it's nothing scary, just hang on tight and I'll fly you over the barrier, I'm assuming you guys can jump down without breaking your neck?" as the shinobis nodded, "Ok taking off," as the sensation of flying was exhilarating for Yugao as she laughed a bit at it. Going from one branch to the next was nothing compared to actually flying over the sky, she briefly wondered if this is how the birds see the world through their eyes, as a smile came on her face.

"Shit!" Tayuya cursed, "Can't we cover the top?"

"We can't!" Sakon said, "This isn't the kind of barrier that can cover the top."

"What kind of shitty barrier is this then?" Tayuya asked.

"Have you ever seen a shinobi that can fly?" Sakon retorted.

"At least we'll be protected," Jiboro said.

"Shit," Tayuya said again as a kunai went straight to the ground, thus confirming for the shinobis that the top wasn't protected as they jumped down into the fray, thankfully the Sound Four were protected by the barrier so therefore the only choice the ANBUs had was to help Sarutobi.

"Damn it," Orochimaru cursed as he dodged a strike from one of the ANBUs, he had heard rumours that there was a strange group of people who could outfight a shinobi, he didn't expect them to have the technology to fly!

"Now what will you do Orochimaru?" Sarutobi asked, "My ANBU bodyguards are highly skilled, even with the First and Second helping you it will be a tough fight."

"You damned geezer," Orochimaru growled as he jumped back reassessing his situation, soon another squad of ANBU were dropped by the Black Hawk as he glared at the helicopter before quickly going through hand seals and then sending a giant fireball towards the helicopter.

"No!" Yugao exclaimed as the helicopter exploded in flames, however they could then see a figure sailing through the sky before a parachute opened as the pilot safely landed to the ground as she sighed in relief.

"Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto said appearing before his master, "We must beat a retreat, you cannot defeat the Hokage and all these ANBUs here even with the former Hokages, furthermore even though I could help you it won't be much, and the Sound Four need to keep up the barriers so they can't help you either."

"I was hoping that I would be able to destroy Konoha and kill my sensei, however that seems to be a hopeless task, I'll retreat for today," Orochimaru said.

"You will not get away Orochimaru!" Sarutobi said as the ANBU went to move, however the Sound Four disengaged their barrier and immediately went to defend their master as the ANBU were beaten back when they activated their cursed seals, "You're still researching those cursed seals? How despicable," Sarutobi growled.

"My dear sensei, it's only a matter of perspective, most would say despicable, but some would call it a true progress to power," Orochimaru said before he then vanished when he threw a smoke bomb over them.

"Damn it," Sarutobi growled as Orochimaru and his men vanished, upon seeing their Kage disappearing the Sound shinobis also beat a retreat and without their allies the Sand shinobis surrendered unconditionally. Sarutobi looked at his village and was glad that the damage wasn't as bad as he thought it would, this was greatly because of the intervention of the US military who, with their superior technology, had surprised the invading shinobis and cut them down before they could mount a proper counter-attack. He would have to thank them in person as soon as the mess was cleared up and see what he could do in terms of having them as permanent allies even though Burton had declared that Fort Hood would remain neutral in their affairs until they returned back home.

"Hokage-sama, Colonel Burton is arriving into Konoha to inspect the damage along with reinforcements," one of the ANBU shinobi said.

"He's probably wondering why we didn't see this coming," Sarutobi said with a sigh, he understood as he would be asking the same question to his own intelligence team as soon as this was over. "Let's go, we need to welcome our heroes," he said with a smile as the ANBU nodded and followed their leader into the village.

"So what exactly happened?" Burton asked sitting inside the Hokage tower with Sarutobi across from him, "I thought you guys were masters of intelligence gathering."

"I understand Burton-san, I too am wondering the same question, rest assured that I will be doing an extensive investigation into this," Sarutobi said.

"I need to be assured that my men would be safe the next time they patrol the area and not have to contend with giant snakes tearing through the country," Burton said, "I need to be assured that this will never happen again, that I will not have any more of my men die under my command."

"I promise," Sarutobi said, "however…I fear that I will not be able to do this for long, the invasion has shown me one thing: I'm getting too old for this."

"You're retiring?" Burton asked not with a surprised tone, but more of a curious tone.

"Yes, however my successor will be well suited to the task I promise you that," Sarutobi said.

"Will he be receptive towards us?" Burton asked worryingly.

"_She_ will, my successor is a kunoichi and one of my brightest student to be more accurate, though she'll need to be found first…" Sarutobi said.

"You want to have my men search the whole land for her?" Burton asked as the logistical side of that would be a nightmare as Sarutobi chuckled and shook his head.

"No, no you don't need to. I have another student of mine searching for her as we speak," Sarutobi said.

"Just how many students do you have?" Burton asked.

"Three, one you already met: Orochimaru," Sarutobi said sadly as Burton looked surprised, but didn't comment, it was hard enough to know when a friend betrayed you but to have your own student try to kill you? Burton supposed it was still a harsh reality to meet.

"Who are the other two?" Burton asked after a moment.

"Jiraya the Toad Sage and Tsunade the legendary medic," Sarutobi said, "to be honest Jiraya is the better choice, but he's quite lazy and I'll know he'll reject the offer so Tsunade it is."

"Why did she leave the village in the first place then?" Burton asked.

"Personal reasons," was Sarutobi's answer and Burton had a feeling that he shouldn't pry more into that topic.

"Very well, I hope that Tsunade is ready for the whole situation," Burton said as he ran his hand through his hair.

* * *

**So I hope you guys have enjoyed that chapter. However now I'm going to open up a poll for you guys to choose what happens next, I plan on having a little bit of help for Fort Hood given in the shape of a supply base and either a weapons research and development facility, or a strategic missile centre.**

**If Fort Hood gains a weapons research and development facility they'll be able to research chakra and maybe merge that with their weapons, as well as having access to 'experimental' weapons. If they choose the missile centre they'll be able to arm missiles and have long range attack capabilities, these include nuclear missiles as well. **

**So please vote guys through reviews because it'll be fun to see what people think.**

**Till next chapter. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone, thank you for all your reviews and PMs, the research facility won by a landslide. So that's going to be featured in the story from now on so expect some exciting new researches and weapons. Also the story is going to deviate from the canon storyline and it'll be revealed how, also I should put a disclaimer that I do not own Naruto and that if I make any mistakes in regards to anything military then I apologise, there will be a short author's note at the end. For now please enjoy the story ^^**

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A week after the failed invasion Burton was sent into the Hokage's office, relations between Konoha and Fort Hood had never been better, after fighting side-by-side with each other both sides have seen each other as comrades-in-arms. It wasn't rare now to see soldiers and shinobis have a drink after a hard day's work or having some of the soldiers play with the kids at the orphanage and entertain them; it was a good time to be a soldier at Fort Hood now. "Good morning Hokage," Burton said entering his office.

"Please call me Sarutobi, I won't be Hokage for long," Sarutobi said with a chuckle.

"How goes the search for Tsunade?" Burton asked.

"Good, Jiraya has a lead on him and he and Naruto are going to chase it," Sarutobi said as Burton frowned.

"Is it wise to have Naruto with him? I mean he is a…" as Burton left that unsaid as Sarutobi smiled.

"Jiraya is a powerful shinobi, he will be able to protect Naruto from any kinds of danger, plus Naruto sees Jiraya as a mentor and he's going to learn a couple of things along the way, there's nothing to worry about," Sarutobi said.

"If you say so," Burton said taking a seat, "so what's the problem?"

"We detected another foreign energy signature near us, two this time," Sarutobi said as Burton sat up a little straighter, he knew the events that happened before Konoha's discovery of Fort Hood so he knew that if this was a foreign energy signature then most likely it was another base, hopefully friendly, though two friendlies was unlikely.

"Where?" Burton asked as Sarutobi pointed them out, "That's close to Fort Hood, alright I'll have my men take care of it, is it as big as Fort Hood?" he asked, "Though…isn't that one in the middle of an ocean?".

"One of them seemed to be roughly the same size as Fort Hood, while the other is smaller perhaps a research facility?" Sarutobi said as Burto nodded.

"Don't worry Sarutobi, I won't let anything happen to Konoha," as the two leaders stood up and shook hands.

"Good to have a strong ally with us, I can count on you to provide security for our delegates to Sunakagure?" Sarutobi asked.

"Of course, I'll personally see to it," Burton reassured him as the two men nodded.

It wouldn't be long before three Humvees were rolling towards the source of the energy signature, they were led by Lieutenant Robert Arnett, an Army officer who's seen a lot of things, "What do you think it'll be sir?" one of the soldier asked.

"I don't know," Robert said, "I just hope it's friendly that's all, I don't care much other then that."

They arrived at the location as Robert disembarked along with the rest of the soldiers as a smile came on his face, "Friendly it is," he said as an American flag was flying high and true as the soldiers laughed as they approached the base.

"Halt who's there?" a soldier asked nervously.

"Don't worry, we're US military," Robert said as the soldier seemed to be relieved.

"Oh thank god, we have no idea what's going on around here, half the base is going stir crazy and we don't have a full security detail," the soldier said.

"Well ease up we're here now, we're from Fort Hood, what base is this?" Robert asked.

"Delta Supply Depot," the soldier said.

"You mean the second-largest supply base in America?" one of the soldier exclaimed before whistling, "Damn…either we're lucky, or someone's really messing with us."

"Where are we sir?" the soldier asked.

"I think I should go to your base commander to explain things," Robert said as the soldier nodded, after explaining the situation to Major General Rick Days the Colonel seemed to take things in stride as he nodded.

"Well we have enough men to stave off a small base assault, but if it's a full blown siege…we're going to need backup," Rick replied.

"Understood sir I'll relay all the information back to the Colonel," Robert said, "can we count on you to provide us with supplies? We need fuel for the bombers and tanks as well as ammo."

"You got it son," Rick said, "just have your CO draw up a list and we'll send them to you, though you are trying to figure out how to get oil in this world right?"

"We're working on it sir," Robert said as the two men then began to discuss their current predicament.

Elsewhere Captain David Connor was onboard the USS Victory, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship as they were directed to investigate the second foreign signature. Being in the Navy for a number of years he thought that he had seen everything, but apparently not, while stories of shinobis and them firing 'jutsus' were circulating amongst the Naval branch of Fort Hood David didn't tend to believe them until he saw giant snakes smashing through a week ago. Now he didn't know what to think, and he hoped that this foreign signature wasn't anything dangerous, "Land sighted captain," the XO said as David went out to the bridge and took up a binoculuar. There right in front of him was an island, a medium-sized island, and he could see white building as well as base defences, mainly SAMs and anti-amphibious weapons, clearly this place is well guarded against any intruders. He tried to see if there was any indication of what nationality the facility is, but found nothing as he sighed, "What do we do now captain?"

"I want a full raiding party to be ready, they're to recon the area and determine if the facility is a friendly. If not then we begin negotiations and hopefully we won't need to resort to a firefight," David said as the XO nodded. Soon two LCAC with marines, led by Staff Sergeant Joseph McKinnley, were launched off the Victory as they began to head towards the facility. On guard for any kind of aggression from the facility, they saw no one going to greet them as they disembarked from the LCAC as they continued their exploration of the facility. They then entered a forested area as they became even more cautious, forests were cliché types of settings for ambushes and various traps as a rustling could be heard from one of the bushes.

"Don't shoot," a voice said as a scientist came out of the bushes holding a clipboard.

"The hell?" Joseph asked.

"Uhm…United States marines?" the scientist asked hopefully.

"No, we're Taliban," Joseph said rhetorically, "of course we're marines, now what is this place? US I presume?" as the scientist nodded.

"Y-yes it's a weapon's research and development facility," the scientist said, "can anyone tell me what's going on? There was this bright light in the sky and the next thing I know I don't recognise any of the landmarks around here, where am I?"

"Ok first calm down," Joseph said to the hyperventilating scientist, "what's your name?'

"D-David, Dr David McCallun," David said.

"Alright doc, let's get to the facility and I'll explain to the best of my knowledge what's going on around here," as David nodded and began to lead the marines down a path towards the facility where they saw Delta Forces, he knew that because they wore all black and glared at them with suspicious eyes, guarding the perimeter.

"Hold on," one of the Deltas said, "who the hell are they?"

"I'm with the United States-" Joseph began.

"Yeah I can see that, I'm not blind dickhead," the Delta said as Joseph's eye ticked a bit, "I'm asking why the hell are you guys here? This is supposed to be a top-secret facility."

"Well if you guys haven't noticed, we're not exactly on Earth anymore," Joseph retorted.

"Oh yeah? Prove it," the Delta said.

"Happy to as soon as you let us in and let me talk to whoever is in charge," Joseph said.

"Not going to happen."

"Look buddy we're all on the same side here, we're both Americans, and we both want to know what's going on, so don't be an asshole and let me in."

"And I'm telling you I'm not going to let anyone in without express permission of Dr Blanchet."

"It's alright Sergeant, you can let them in," a female voice said as Jospeh turned to see a busty blonde woman wearing a lab coat, "I'm Dr Catherine Blanchet, in charge of this facility, you said that you had some information for us?"

"Yes ma'am we do," Joseph said as the Delta soldier looked at Catherine with surprise before grudgingly allowing them in as Joseph grinned at him.

"Watch yourself," the Delta soldier grumbled.

"Sure sergeant, anything you say," Joseph replied with a grin before following the doctor into an office as the scientist scampered away to some other place while the other marines waited around while Joseph told Catherine the situation.

"Hmm…this is certainly an interesting situation we're in," Catherine said, "not only do we have the most top-secret research facility that the United States possesses along with untold experimental weapons, but also the second-largest supply base and the largest US military base. It seems someone wants only the best allied with Konoha."

"We can't be certain that we were brought here, by the way do you have any idea what brought us here in the first place?" Joseph asked as Catherine smiled.

"I do, but that's top-secret and only for your base CO and the base CO of Delta Supply Depot," she said with a wink as Joseph asked, problem with black op research was that you get stonewalled if you weren't high enough on the totem pole, he just hoped that they were trying to get them home. "Anyways I suppose I will have to visit both COs."

"I can arrange for that," Joseph said as he contacted Fort Hood and soon a meeting was arranged between Sarutobi and the US leaders, which had expanded to Catherine and Rick, after some discussion a plan was drawn up. As before Fort Hood would provide Konoha with support if necessary as well as continuing to hunt for bounties. They were to be no longer supplied by Konoha, who had been supplying them with supplies, and were now supplied by Delta Supply Depot in return for protection from Fort Hood, not that any such incentive were needed as Fort Hood would have protected the supply depot anyways. However there were problems when it came to Catherine's facility, because it is a top-secret facility it is natural that they would not want any nosy people, whether it be soldiers or shinobis, intruding on her base though she did express great interest in research 'chakra', though she didn't believe this until she saw without a doubt that 'magic' as she called it exist in this world, and how it could be applied to modern technology.

This caused great concern with Sarutobi, although Fort Hood had done much for Konoha especially during the invasion recently they were still hesitant with each other. Shinobis had attempted to gain access to Fort Hood, but Burton had denied each of them citing security, which the shinobis were able to understand. However research into chakra had been somewhat limited as Fort Hood was not a research facility, and the soldiers had no care about delving further into it, but now with a research facility in their possession Sarutobi feared that should chakra be mixed into their weapons the results could be catastrophic. "I am merely researching something that is not seen in our world, any scientist would do so."

"Although I do not object to such research I cannot help, but be afraid of what your research might yield, even if you did research chakra you would not be able to use it in your world once you return," Sarutobi countered.

"That is _if_ we return," Catherine said, "so far we do not know how we came into this world, and therefore nor do we know how to return to our world. We might be in your world for some years, therefore would it not be wise to research into this phenomena so we can defend ourselves from enemy shinobis?"

"While I don't object either to the research Dr Blanchet, I must consider our alliance," Burton said, "we only have Konoha to depend on and we cannot strain our relationship with it."

Catherine looked at the men for a moment before sighing, "Very well I suppose I can only promise you that we won't delve too deeply into chakra then, I suppose the…what was it called k-k-" she said.

"Kekkei Genkai?" Sarutobi questioned, "No, they are definitely off-limits."

"Understood," Catherine said, "I suppose we'll have to stick with our current projects then."

"I will allow you, for the sake of alliances, to grant you access to some books about chakra. Perhaps that should allow you to start researching in it on a fundamental basis," as Catherine smiled.

"That would be perfect," she said as the conversation drifted to other matters of concern for the parties involved. Soon after the leaders went back towards their individual bases/facilities as Burton sighed, this was becoming complicated now, he didn't know the name of the facility that Catherine was part of but he knew of the woman. She was a highly renowned scientist who is a good woman with a good heart, but devoted to the science. If she found something like chakra, she would relentlessly pursue it and research it with great fevour and Burton knew that Catherine wouldn't be giving up on this concept anytime soon. At least she knew how to work together with other people, though he was curious as to the extent of her scientific knowledge.

The days quickly passed by and soon Jiraya and Naruto came back with Tsunade and Shizune in tow. The coronation ceremony was quite grand as the Konoha village were glad to have one of the Legendary Sannins as their Hokage, the soldiers also attended the ceremony as some of them were quite astounded at Tsunade's apperance, not to mention her bust size as some were salivating at the sight of her. After that Tsunade met with the three US leaders as a similar discussion unfolded about security arrangements and what aid Fort Hood could do, Tsunade primarily followed Sarutobi's policy about it though she was interested in Catherine's scientific knowledge. Afterwards the two of them then went into a private room where they discussed private matters, "Huh…I didn't expect that," Sarutobi said surprised.

"Well she was a legendary medic according to you, so it would make sense that she would work with a scientist, probably compare notes on medical stuff," Burton said.

"Well…it's her choice in the end, I just hope that she knows what she's doing," Sarutobi said. Meanwhile John was out eating dango again with Kurenai, the two of them had been meeting each other on some days and just hanging out, even though their background was different they still had similar ideals and attitude. Therefore the two of them found themselves going out with each other, not on 'dates' as a lot of their friends had teasingly call it, but more or less simply walks or discussions on certain matters.

"So now that things have finally calmed down your team must be getting a lot of missions?" John enquired.

"Sort of," Kurenai said, "they are mostly tracking missions, which we cater for, so it's not too much trouble."

"When I hear tracking missions I keep thinking of your team just spying on them continuously," John said.

Kurenai giggled, "No that's not it, sometimes we do that, but most of the time we just keep them in our sight and let another team handle it; though sometimes we do run into problems," she said.

John sighed, "Well at least you get home safely each time, even if you do run into problems," he said as Kurenai smiled at him.

"Hey John-niisan!" Naruto said jogging up to them, "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Naruto," John said ruffling the boy's hair, "not much I'm just spending my day off here."

"With Kurenai-sensei?" Naruto asked as John and Kurenai blushed and looked away from each other.

"N-no of course not, Kurenai just happens to be around here and we were just talking," John said.

"Really?" Naruto asked, but decided to drop the subject matter, "Hey, hey want to get ramen?"

"Now? It's not even lunch yet Naruto," John said as Naruto grabbed his hand.

"That's alright, come on John-niisan," Naruto said dragging the soldier with him.

"Alright, alright I'm coming," John said waving a hasty goodbye to Kurenai, "I'll see you around Kurenai," he shouted before being dragged around a corner.

"Yes, I'll see you around," Kurenai said softly even though John couldn't hear him, she wished that she would have been able to spend more time with John, he was a nice person, she just wished that this kind of peacefulness would last a bit longer.

_Meanwhile in the Land of Iron_

The skies, unlike the skies of Konoha, were darkened through countless smogs rising from chimneys and factories as airships continuously guarded the skies. Inside a fortified fortress several men were sitting around a round table with Mifune, a general with long grey hair, as he sat at the head of the table, "Gentlemen, the time has come, for almost three decades we have hidden ourselves from the eyes of those Shinobis. For three decades we have built our forces, forged alliances, and improved our technology, now is the time…our forces are grand, our technology cannot be beaten by those shinobis and their ninjutsus and before long we will reclaim this land in the name of the Emperor!" Mifune said as the men in the room cheered their support.

"What shall we do first?" a man wearing a tan trench coat and armour underneath it asked, he was the representative of the Land of Steel named Shingo where like Iron their forces are the greatest when it comes to weaponry, "Which nation should we attack?"

"We shall attack the minor nations first, in fact we are going to retaliate, our ally the Land of Snow has recently been experiencing some problems with another nation. We will strike at that nation and tell them that we are not to be trifled with, after that we will assert our forces into the land until we are ready to attack one of the Five Elemental Nations," Mifune said.

"Oh? Couldn't the poor princess keep her country from being attacked?" a man named Kazuma , wearing Victorian-era clothing asked snidely, he was the leader of the Land of Metal which was a high industrial land who gave metal and resources to all the other shinobi nations. He was in it mainly for the profit that his land would get if they side with Mifune and his gang even though he didn't really care about their goal.

"Do not think you can easily mock Princess Koyuki, she has been a stern supporter of our cause, after all it was because of us that we were able to overthrow the previous leader and had him executed, painfully of course," Mifune said as the man merely smiled.

"And what of these reports? I have heard reports that in Konoha there are people who use the same technology as us? Will they pose a threat to us?" the Land of Steel representative asked.

"Do not worry about them, even if they possess the same technology we still have our vast forces to counter them, not to mention our various spies and assassins," Mifune said, "after all…no one could ever match the technology that we have created."

"Of course, it was only thanks to our alliance that we have reinvented our lands into a prosperous nation, our machines of war will make short work of whatever those people have," Kazuma said as the men laughed and began to continue their plot of destroying the era of shinobis, and ushering in an age of industry.

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**So as you can see the Land of Iron, along with two other original nations, are going to be in an alliance to destroy the Shinobi world. That's the deviation from the canon line of the story, and to those that will say that Mifune is not himself...well you'll see the reason as to that ^^ I hope you've enjoyed this story and please keep watching for the next chapter when the US military clashes with the new alliance.**


	10. Chapter 10

Tsunade read the latest report as she frowned, a village had been attacked in retaliation to its constant harassment of the Land of Snow. Although normally she would simply glance at it and put it someplace else as the village was not allied with Konoha, she was worried at the method used to attack the village as it was not like anything she had ever seen. The small reports that she got indicated that the village was attacked by some 'armoured warriors' and 'machines of steel' the armoured warriors wasn't of any concern to Tsunade as it could allude to a variety of mercenaries that still uses armour. But the 'machines of steel' part did make her worried, because she didn't know if that alluded to machines similar to what Fort Hood had, or was it something else altogether?

"What's wrong Tsunade-sama? You look worried," Shizune asked.

"No it's nothing," Tsunade said putting the report away before picking the next one up, this was a mission request from a nearby village to aid them against some people who are trying to annex their land. This Tsunade took seriously because if that land was taken then the Land of Fire would be next as she decided to summon a Jonin team to lead the mission, "Shizune summon Kakashi to me immediately."

"H-hai," Shizune said as Tsunade took out the personnel file and began flicking through it to see who would be most suited for this mission. In less then three hours she got several Jonin, including Kakashi, waiting for her orders.

"What is the matter Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked.

"We have a request for aid from a nearby nation, it seems that they have aggressors who wish to annex their land, we cannot have that nation fall. If it falls then it gives whoever invaded them a clear line of sight to our the Land of Fire and that cannot happen, you are to intercept the invading forces and do anything in your power to stop them," Tsunade ordered.

"Hai Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, "it'll be done."

"Good luck, dismissed," Tsunade said as the Jonins quickly shunshined away.

"Are you alright Tsunade?" Sarutobi asked coming into the room, "You do look very worried," as he read the report and raised his eyebrow, "machines of steel? You're not thinking…"

"I don't know what to think Sarutobi-sensei," Tsunade said, "I know that the United States military wouldn't do anything to break our trust, the three leaders are men and woman of repute and I trust them, plus they don't seem like the kind of people to go behind our backs. But I can't rule it out either, no matter what my personal feelings are."

"I understand, it is hard to know who to trust in a position like this, but if you ever need advice then you can come talk to me," Sarutobi said.

"Yes sensei," Tsunade said, "thank you."

It took less then four hours for the Jonin team to arrive at the village, however it seemed they arrived too late, the village lay in ruins and bodies were piling all over the place, "How could this be?" one of the Jonin asked, "Surely they couldn't move this fast?"

"Maybe they sent the aid request far too late?" another suggested, "Either way what should we do now captain Kakashi?"

"Spread out and look for any survivors, hopefully there will be someone who can tell us who did this to them," Kakashi said as the shinobis spread out. He went to the central part of the village as he sighed, his life had been one of a never ending war, bloodshed every time he went out of the village, sometimes he had to wonder if shinobis were truly needed in this world. If there were no shinobis then perhaps peace can truly reign in this world, he had been talking to some of the US soldiers and they said that their world was mostly in peace except for some parts of the world; they too want peace, but can never have it as long as soldiers like them existed. But this was just too much, who would want to slaughter children as well? Kakashi looked sadly at one of them before moving on to the next.

He then heard a sound as he tensed, was it a survivor? Or the enemy? He strained his ears to listen to any sound that might indicate where the enemy was before he found it, "Got you," he said throwing a kunai towards the location as he heard the sound of flesh being pierced, a loud cry of pain, and then a loud crack before his shoulder burned with pain. Grunting he fell to the ground and looked to see a wound similar to what he saw during Konoha's first encounter with Fort Hod, surely the US wouldn't attack them?

He was answered as an armoured man bearing an emblem that he had never seen before came out of his hiding place with a kunai in his shoulder as he pulled out a strange gun-like weapon similar to the handguns that he was shown by a few soldiers one time. Knowing what it could do Kakashi rolled away as the dirt was blasted apart as he then got to his feet and quickly dashed towards the man, another shot ringing out as he dodged that one and before a third shot could be fired Kakashi punched the man square in the face sending him flying into a wall where he groaned and then laid still. Panting a few other Jonin arrived at the scene, "Are you alright captain? Are you hurt?" one of them asked.

"Just a flesh wound," Kakashi said as he picked up the gun, it was certainly nothing he had ever seen before and it didn't look like any weapons that the US would have, it was cluncky and heavy and the appearance was starkly different. And it only fired at the most six rounds, very unusual.

"I thought the US were on our side, why are they giving guns to these guys?" one asked.

"It's not the US, this is completely different from the US, this metal…it resonates with chakra, it's metal that can absorb chakra to fire the bullets, metals that can only be found in our world. And the design is different as well," Kakashi said.

"I don't recognise that emblem," one of the Jonin said, it was in the shape of a three-leg crow, Kakashi recognised it as a Yatagasaru which is commonly depicted in legends and myths. Perhaps there is a special symbolism for the faction?

"It's a Yatagasaru, a three leg crow, commonly found in myths and legends," Kakashi said, "anyways I don't think there's anything else we can find here so let's-" his words were interrupted when a volley of shots rang out as the Jonins ducked for cover. Kakashi peered through a corner as his eyes widened, a row of armoured men armed this time with rifles were marching towards them firing as they went along, behind them was a steel vehicle that was similar to one of those tanks that Kakashi had saw during the invasion of Konoha as it rumbled along.

"My god, what is that?" a Jonin asked.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Kakashi said as the 'tank' turned its cannon towards where Kakashi was hiding, "crap run!" he shouted as a loud boom came from the tank as the building where Kakashi and a couple others were using for cover exploded into dust as the armoured men charged ahead stopping now and again to aim and fire at the retreating Konoha shinobis. "Run! Retreat back to Konoha, we can't win against them!" he said as one of the men gave a cry as one of the bullets hit him in the leg, Kakashi went to the wounded shinobi and carried him towards safety as bullets whizzed past him.

"Just leave me, I'll slow you down," the man groaned.

"No, I'm not abandoning my comrades," Kakashi grunted as one of the shinobi fired off a lightning attack which briefly stopped the advance of the enemy, before he was also hit by a bullet as another shinobi dragged him away, "just try to run, they can't run that fast with that much armour on," Kakashi said as the remaining shinobis ran as fast as they can. Kakashi slowed down a bit due to him carrying an injured shinobis as the echoes of gunfire dulled and soon stopped indicating that they were well out of reach of those guns as he wondered just what on earth was happening now.

"T-this is incredible," Burton exclaimed flabbergasted at the report, "a rifle? An actual rifle?" he asked.

"This is one of the weapon that I picked up from the enemy," Kakashi said taking out the handgun and putting it on the table as Catherine picked it up and inspected it.

"Interesting," she murmured, "this is reminiscent of olden weapons, though of a different design, and you said that the metal was from this world?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied, "I recognised it as Chakra metal, that can only be gained from the Land of Metal."

"Which doesn't really mean anything," Tsunade said, "the Land of Metal is a powerful merchant nation that has a large abundance of metals, they sell it to anyone who pays high enough, some of our weapons were forged from the Land of Metal as well."

"So mercenaries?" Burton asked, "Even so I thought you guys said you never even seen a gun until we came."

"And we haven't," Tsunade said biting her nails, "this poses a problem."

"More importantly as well is a _tank_, you faced a tank?" Burton asked.

"Hold on Colonel, I need to ask something," Catherine said after inspecting the gun for a while, "Kakashi could you describe to me, in detail if you could, what the tank looked like."

Kakashi, like all shinobis, was an observant person as it was almost an unspoken requirement for all Chunin and above rank shinobis, observation meant that you know things, and knowledge was power indeed. So Kakashi had little trouble describing the tank as Catherine wrote down the characteristics as she muttered to herself, "Steampunk," she finally said after analysing it.

"I'm sorry? Steampunk?" Tsunade asked.

"The design, it's certainly of a steampunk-genre," Catherine said.

"What's steampunk?" Kakashi asked.

"It's a literary genre, much like fantasy and horror, that focuses on machinery that uses steam as a source of power, basically during the past we didn't have all these machineries and writers imagined a world much like the modern one we came from. The way you described it, it's almost identical to common designs of steampunk tanks," Catherine explained.

"Wait so someone's been reading steampunk books?" Burton asked.

"Unlikely, I said it was identical, not exact so more likely it was inspired by something else. But it still poses a problem, your world is not prepared for such technological advances, I think that is the point of the enemy. If they attack any nation they would overwhelm it instantly because no one can ever be ready for something shoots bullets at a distance," Catherine said.

"So what should we do about it?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm no tactician, that I leave to the good Colonel here," Catherine said flashing a smile at Burton who cleared his throat.

"To be quite honest I say we see where this new enemy goes, if they try to attack Konoha or the Land of Fire in general then please allow Fort Hood to go and engage them," Burton said as a messenger burst into the room.

"My apologies Hokage-sama, but we have report that the armoured enemy is advancing into the Land of Fire, they have five machines of war supporting almost twenty armoured men," the messenger said as Tsunade's eyes widened.

"Colonel Burton, I'm now asking officially as Hokage to aid us in this attack, you have my full authority to use whatever weapons you deem necessary to stop this advance and defend our nation," Tsunade said.

"Of course, you have my word," Burton said, "I'll personally lead my men into battle." It wasn't long before a full alert was put in place as a task force of seven M1A1 Abrams supported by several Bradleys full of troops were mobilized as the village became nervous at the reports of similar enemies advancing on them, however they had high hopes that the US soldiers would be able to fend them off.

"Are you going John?" Kurenai asked as John was quickly walking to one of the Bradleys.

"Yeah I'm called to the front-line," John said as he carried his M4 carbine with him.

"Please be careful," Kurenai whispered as John looked at her.

"Y-yeah I'll be careful, I promise," as Kurenai, who was holding onto John's arm, let go as he waved her a goodbye as she smiled at him praying that he would return back to Konoha safe.

"Is it true they have armoured vehicles with them?" one of them asked on the way to the path the enemy was heading down.

"Supposedly," a sergeant said, "but I doubt whatever their armoured vehicle they have can penetrate our armour."

"I'm more worried about how they were able to produce it without any blueprints, last I heard they never used guns," John said.

"Hey human ingenuity my friend," another soldier said, "probably the same way our guns came into existence, someone thought it up, followed it and voila they created their own version of a gun."

"Yeah, just hope it's just guns and tanks," John said though he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the case. A thought came across him as he wondered if this was the reason that Fort Hood and all those other facilities were brought into this world, was it to fight against this new enemy? If so then who brought them here? The Bradley then stopped as the soldiers disembarked and created a line, if the enemy came into their sights they were to shoot on sight, as a wall of Bradleys covered the soldiers while the Abrams stood behind them ready to open fire with their 120mm 44 M256 smoothbore cannons. They didn't have to wait long as the sound of gunfire, unlike those of modern weapons, cracked as it hit the metallic armour of the Bradley as John could see men wearing armour charging towards them and firing their rifles.

"Open fire," Burton ordered as the US soldiers unloaded their carbines at the enemy troops as several fell from the first volley before the rest took cover at the trees and rocks, a loud boom echoed as a chunk of the dirt was blown as the enemy tank opened fire. In return the Abrams opened fire as two of the five tanks exploded in a fireball before one of the tank got hit by an enemy round as it skidded backwards a bit, but it remained operational if only damaged before it returned the favour as another tank exploded. However the enemy infantry weren't doing well either as the Bradley's chain gun ripped through the enemy line as their weapons did little to the Bradley's armour, to the US soldiers though it was a 50/50 chance of being it as one soldier demonstrated when he was hit on the chest, but luckily the projectile was stopped by his body armour before he managed to drag himself out of the firing line. Finally the last of the tank exploded as the remaining enemy infantry retreated as the US task force sighed in relief, in total they suffered no casualties, a few of the tanks were damaged in the exachange, but other then that it was a resounding victory.

"Well…that was something," Burton commented, "let's go pick up some loot, maybe the good doctor can figure out how they're making the weapons," he said as the US task force went and looted the enemy body taking body armour and weapons from them. They wouldn't usually do this, but seeing as how this new enemy was now shooting back at them they had to know how to combat it the next time they face them, if there ever was a next time. After that they climbed back on board their vehicles and made a quick get away leaving the tanks behind as they had been reduced to a husk and weren't salvageable.

"What do you think is happening John?" one of the soldier asked, "I mean…shinobis I get, but now people with guns?"

"I don't know Jack," John replied, "I'm a little worried too…"

"Man this is just messed up," as John silently agreed, things were starting to get very messed up.


	11. Chapter 11

"Interesting, how very interesting," Catherine said inspecting the weapons that Burton's task force had brought back to her when they defended Konoha. Her hand slid down the weapon, feeling every inch of the material as her eyes twinkled with excitement. The design and material of the weapon confirmed her previous hypothesis that the creator of the weapons, and armour, had a very Steampunkish mind as it was exactly how she imagined such a weapon would look like. From the description of the soldiers it also made her aware that if they were able to build tanks, then what's to stop them from building airships? She had seen some illustrations of what steampunk artists created, and some of the airships were beyond imagination, perfect for stories but very bad if it was ever created. She just hoped that none of that ever came to pass as she put down the weapon and began researching deeper into what created these weapons, perhaps she could reproduce them or exploit some sort of weakness.

The armour seemed to be resilient to most metals of this world, namely kunais and shurikens, but even a handgun fired at them can easily penetrate their armour as obviously they didn't take that factor into account. Though it did bring to mind that no doubt they will reinforce their armour as she needed to therefore accelerate any research into chakra, perhaps their soldiers would be able to strengthen their bullets just enough to penetrate any armour that the enemy would have. However the shinobis seemed to be reluctant for any further research into chakra, other then the fundamentals, to be delved into leaving Catherine and her researchers with basic fundamentals to work on…that was fine as most science experiments begin at the fundamentals, but usually they had more information to use. Catherine will need to discuss this further with Tsunade to see what she thought about it, but for now she would have to add these equipment to her never ending list of things to research.

"Dr Catherine?" a researcher said as she was broken out of her thoughts as she turned to him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The Phase 1 experiment for the Titan armour is a success," the researcher reported, "we're going to proceed to Phase 2."

"Oh yes, carry on," Catherine said, "just tell me if there are any problems…" as the researcher frowned.

"But ma'am we need you to sign off for the approval to continue Phase 2, not to mention the documentation and report that you need to read over," as Catherine grinded her teeth.

"I'll do it later, just put it on the table or whatever," she said as the researcher looked unsure,

"But ma'am it's protocol-"

"Damn it I'm in the middle of thinking, this could be the breakthrough on military usage of chakra, which in turn will be a great advantage to our soldier!" she snapped as the researcher yelped and simply walked away, "Honestly…reports and research, who works as hard as me around here?" she muttered.

Tsunade then sneezed, "Are you okay Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

"Yes I'm quite fine," Tsunade replied reading the report, "this is troubling…if we didn't have Burton's men we would have suffered heavy casualties."

"Indeed," Shizune agreed, "we're quite thankful for them."

"How are the wounded shinobi?" Tsunade asked.

"They're recovering quite nicely, some of the medics from the base explained what to do with bullet wounds to our own medics, though it was a bit tough hearing it as you had to pull out the bullet usually with a sterilised knife, I'm surprised they are able to do it without medical jutsus," Shizune said with a sigh.

"And the bullets?"

"Oh we recovered it and sent it to Catherine-san's facility where they're researching it, I don't know what they'll even find from those small things."

"Those small things have the power to kill a person if hit in the right place, much like how any of our weapons can do the same," Tsunade said.

"Well I'm glad that this issue has been resolved without much incident," Shizune said.

"I doubt that it'll be the last time we see them though," Tsunade said, "we'll need to prepare our troops for battle if these new hostiles continue to harass us."

"Hai, what would you have us do?" Shizune asked.

"For now let me think on it, I'll have to figure some things out first," Tsunade said as Shizune nodded. A few days went by as the story about the new enemy began to circulate throughout the village, they were naturally worried about the whole situation and were questioning whether or not they would be able to fend of any further incursions without Fort Hood. The same thought was running through the minds of the soldiers as well because they knew that although they had no way out of this world, they feared about what would happen if they one day just vanished and arrived in their world the same way they arrived in theirs. A lot of the soldiers had grown fond of Konoha and its citizens and they did not want them to be hurt, however they only voiced these concerns amongst themselves in whispers.

"You look worried," Kurenai said to John as the two of them were at a café.

"Is it obvious?" John replied in a monotone voice.

"Everyone can tell that the soldiers are getting more tense each day, is it because of the new enemy?" Kurenai asked.

John looked around briefly before leaning forward, "We're just worried about all of you, none of you are ready to face something of this calibre, what I faced that day was similar to what we face back home. If they have tanks, who's to say that they don't have any air force too? Or naval forces for that matter, I don't know how many their numbers are, but if they're intent on subjugating every country…"

"The shinobi nations will forge an alliance then, that has happened in the past when a powerful nation threatens several others, of course when it's all over we end up killing each other again," Kurenai said drinking.

"I rather that you guys don't kill each other when you just forged an alliance, it makes it harder to forge alliances in the future," John said as Kurenai shrugged slightly.

"It's how it's always been, you could give us some of your weapons, we can reproduce them and defend ourselves if they ever came back," Kurenai suggested as John laughed a little.

"It's been suggested, but there's a little problem with that," John said before continuing on with an explanation, "it's called an arms race, the basic concept of it is that if one country has a powerful arsenal then other parties will also compete to have similar strengths, that would meant an increase in research and development, espionage, assassinations and whatever else you can think of. Then even if all parties were of equal strength, after god knows how many corpses piling on it, then we have MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction, where for example a nation fires a missile into another nation then both parties would be destroyed due to having an equal amount of strength."

"So…in basic terms, if we build up our weapons and try to reproduce yours, other nations will try to make the same thing and eventually we'll be back where we're started if not at a worse state?" Kurenai simplified as John nodded.

"And that is the big debate happening in Fort Hood and the supply base at the moment, whether or not to supply you guys with our weapons. Of course it's illegal back in our world and we'll probably see a couple of heads rolling," as Kurenai's eyes widened, "not literally of course, I meant that someone is going to get in big trouble with the brass, but if it's for you guys…well I meant it when I said we've grown fond of you."

"And you? What about you?" Kurenai asked.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"How do you feel about it?" Kurenai asked.

"If you mean our relationship," John said, "then…I think…I think that we shouldn't be doing this," he said softly as Kurenai looked down, "you know why right?"

"You're afraid…afraid that one day you'll be gone and you don't want to hurt me," Kurenai said with a soft smile, "you always are a gentleman."

"I don't want to hurt you Kurenai," John said, "I love you but I don't want to hurt you, that's why I can't get any closer to you…"

"I don't care," Kurenai said as her eyes were now misting at this point, "you're the kind of person I've always longed for in this war-torn world, someone who believes in humanity and doesn't give up, I don't know anyone else who has that same attitude as you."

John remained quiet as he drank the rest of his drink before pulling out some ryos and putting it on the counter, "I'm sorry Kurenai, I can't see you anymore…I love you too much to see you get hurt if I ever leave," he said before he left the café with tears trailing down his eyes as the two soldiers of two different worlds wept bitterly over their fate. Unknown to either of them the Konoha 12 were observing it, they had by chance come across the couple and what started off as a chance to get some dirt on the two turned into a melancholy experience as they walked off in silence together to let Kurenai cry in peace.

"I knew that Kurenai-sensei liked John, but I didn't think they were actually in love with each other," Kiba said after a time.

"It makes logical sense," Shikimaru said, "if the US soldiers ever left our world, they would be leaving a trail of broken hearts, no one ever wants to subject the one they love to that kind of pain."

"But still," Ino said, "it's not fair…none of this is fair…do you…do you think that's the reason that the US soldiers haven't been coming as regularly to Konoha as before? Because they're all afraid of getting too close to us?"

"Maybe," Shikimaru said, "I agree it's not fair, but that's how it is…I really don't know what else to say about it."

"Poor Kurenai-sensei and John-niisan," Naruto said sadly, "and they looked so perfect together."

"Just yesterday a guy from the Air Force broke off with Hana," Kiba said, "the guy was a dog lover and the two of them were hitting it off, I mean I never see Hana so happy in my entire life…when he broke up with her she just snapped and wouldn't come out of her room for a whole day."

"It's happening everywhere," Sakura said, "I think the soldiers are starting to realise, that they can't be here forever, that maybe one day there is a possibility that they will return to their own world…if I was in their shoes I would do the same."

"I'm going home," Naruto said, "see you guys later…" as he stalked off deep in thought as the others soon broke away as well.

"Hey Hinata," Kiba said as the girl turned, "you should go and do it already with Naruto."

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata asked blushing as she knew what Kiba was referring to as the boy chuckled.

"Just that…what happened with Kurenai-sensei, I know that this isn't exactly the same situation but the message is loud and clear. One day the one you cherish might not be here, and anything you might wanted to say would vanish along with him…go and confess to him before it's too late," as Hinata looked down and nodded, "it'll be alright, Naruto's a great guy," before he walked away as Hinata ran up to Naruto catching up to him.

"Oh hey Hinata what's up?" Naruto asked seeing Hinata.

"N-Naruto-kun I-I have so-something to tell you," Hinata said blushing hard as her heart hammered against her chest hard.

"Oh? What is it?" Naruto asked stopping and looking at her as she gulped and tried to calm down and not faint.

"I-I…I…" Hinata stammered trying to get the words out as she closed her eyes and took the dive, "I l-love you Naruto-kun," she said as her body relaxed, it was as though a great weight was taken off her chest as she looked up at Naruto as he blinked once, then twice, then three times.

"Y-you love me?" Naruto asked completely bamboozled, "Since when?"

"Since our time at the academy," Hinata said, "when you were little you always strived to work hard no matter what other people said about you, you never gave up, I…I could empathise with that because it was the same in my home. That's why…I've always admired you."

"W-wow," Naruto said, "I…I don't know what to say. W-where did you get the courage to finally say it?"

"Kiba," Hinata said, "he's always known that I've been in love with you…and then after we saw what happened with John and Kurenai he said…he said that one day the person you cherish might not be here, and any anything you might wanted to say would vanish along with him."

"Huh, he was that perceptive huh?" Naruto said rubbing his head as he looked at her and nodded, "Alright…so…you want to be my girlfriend?"

Hinata blushed as she nodded, "I-if that's alright with you," she said as Naruto looked to the sky as he remembered something that John told him a couple of weeks back.

_Flashback_

"_Huh? Hinata? You mean the girl on Kurenai-sensei's team?" Naruto asked as he and John were on a bench eating some snacks as John nodded._

"_Yeah, you know, I think she likes you," John said with a smile as Naruto spluttered._

"_W-what? That's impossible, we barely interact," Naruto said oblivious to the small yelp that Hinata made at the corner of a fence as John smiled even wider. "Besides I'm aiming for Sakura-chan," he said grinning._

"_Naruto," John said, "I think you need to give up on her, it's obvious she doesn't like you."_

"_Well she's addicted to Sasuke-teme at the moment so that's no surprise, but you'll see one day she'll acknowledge me and then we'll be an item! Believe it!" Naruto said as John shook his head._

"_Naruto let me tell you a story, you know how Alice and Alex are an item right now right?" John said as Naruto nodded, "Well would it surprise you for me to tell you that long ago I liked Alice too?" he said as Naruto's eyes widened as he shook his head. "Yeah well…me, Alice and Alex went through a military school when we were young, our parents were in the military so it would make sense that we would also go to a military school. We were a close bunch and we always hanged out together, that's when I started to like her, the way she moved, talked and even laughed was like a drug to me…it felt so good to be with her that I was infatuated with her, so when we graduated from the military academy and began to join the military I confessed to her; to me it was now or never and that it was better to get it out now then never."_

"_What happened?" Naruto asked._

"_She told me that she didn't love me, she was in love with Alex," John said as Naruto gasped, "yeah…to say I was heart broken is an understatement, I thought she was just playing hard to get. So throughout our time in the military I always tried to get her attention, whether it be a prank, a love letter, roses, chocolates you name it I did it…she was patient though, always telling me that she would like the gesture but she didn't reciprocate my feelings. Alex was less…patient and we got into our share of fights now and again," as Naruto snickered, "but eventually I began to realise that it was over, that she didn't love me and no matter what I did it would never happen. So one day I told her that it was over, that I would move on from her and that if she was happy with Alex I would be as well. You know what she said to me? She said 'I'm glad that you've moved on, it's a show of maturity and strength'" as Naruto was now laughing._

"_So…did you move on?" Naruto asked curiously._

"_Of course I did, I've moved on and I'm trying to see who's available, but do you see the message in that story? Don't let yourself be so wrapped up around Sakura that you miss the one person that truly admires and likes you completely, don't let her heart be broken anymore because of your infatuation with Sakura…move on from Sakura and into someone else's life," John said as Naruto looked at his brother figure intently remembering that message._

_End flashbck_

"Ok, I'll be your boyfriend Hinata-chan," Naruto said with a grin as Hinata couldn't smile wide enough as she hugged Naruto before the two of them walked off together.

"So how are your researches coming along?" Tsunade asked as Catherine and her were having tea, it was not an uncommon sight to see these two women drink and have a chat on a daily basis. They had things in common. Both of them were in positions of power, both of them desired knowledge, and both of them were scientists. Although Tsunade wished that she would be able to give Catherine more information on chakra, she had to respect her teacher's condition and hope that Catherine would be able to figure out chakra from the bare basics that were given to her.

"It's doing quite good thank you," Catherine replied, "most of the experiments are now being rerouted to chakra experimentations and research."

"I'm sorry I can't give you anymore help," Tsunade said, "it would definitely have been helpful."

"Oh don't worry, I appreciate the help," Catherine said, "right now though I'm concentrating on an armour that would hopefully benefit people, without boring you with the details it basically allows the person wearing it to be nothing more then a machine of war. Destructive, resistant to most conventional firearms, and faster as well."

"My sounds like an interesting experiment," Tsunade remarked.

"It is," Catherine said, "however right now I'm more interested in those weapons and armour from the ones we took from the enemy."

"Ah yes how is that going?" Tsunade asked, "Have you been able to gain anything from them?"

"Nothing substantial, the metals are of a unfamiliar composition so it would be some time before I am able to even recreate the armour much less figure out how to build similar vehicles and incorporate it into the US arsenal. The weapons are the same though simpler and I should be able to create a prototype of the rifle used in the future," Catherine said.

"I look forward to seeing it, heavens knows we need all the help that we can get," Tsunade said.

"Happy to help," Catherine replied, "we're both in this together right?"

"Correct," as the two women went to discuss other matters, but then Shizune burst in carring a note with a panicked, and fearful, look on her face.

"Tsunade-sama it's terrible!" she shouted as Tsunade groaned.

"No need to shout Shizune," Tsunade replied, "what's the problem?"

"A declaration of war, from the Saika Faction," Shizune said.

"The who?"

"The faction that tried to attack us, the one with all those new weapons."

"Ah I see…so they want to attack us huh?"

"No, it's sent to every shinobi village in the world! They want to take over the entire land!" Shizune exclaimed shocking Tsunade, just who were the Saika Faction for them to boast that they would take over every shinobi village? Tsunade took the declaration and read it, basically it was meaningless drivel about how the age of shinobis was about to end and an era of prosperity was about to arrive as the Saika Faction was supporting the Japanese royal family.

"The royal family? I haven't heard from them in ages, decades in fact," Tsunade remarked.

"You had royalty as well?" Christine asked.

"Yes we did," Tsunade said, "they were based somewhere close to the Land of Iron and employed samurais as their main army. However as we shinobis grew in power, naturally they and us clashed and eventually we overthrew the royal family and employed daimyos for each region, since then they have not been seen and it's the general consensus that they have all died away…it seemed we were wrong."

"It's worse," Shizune said gravely as they looked at her, "the Saika Faction has taken over dozens of smaller shinobi nations as well and they're expanding…rapidly," as Tsunade's eyes widened.

"Dear Kami," she whispered, they were serious about attacking the entire nations, they were already on the warpath, "call an emergency meeting, invite the US armies as well, this requires their aid and strength."

"Hai!" Shizune said running out as Tsunade slumped back into the chair in shock.

"They're moving at a fast speed," Christine said, "this is…surreal, to have that kind of logistics and technology…I think it's time we get serious," as Tsunade nodded an unspoken conversation between the two of them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi everyone, sorry for the long wait. I know I'm late with this chapter, but schoolwork in addition to a major writer's block prevented me from posting on time. But here it is and I'm sorry if it's not as good as other chapters. Also I'm aware of people telling me that the Naruto world doesn't have a Japanese royal family, I apologise for that as I didn't know, but it does make a good motivation plot for the Saika Faction, but I apologise.**

* * *

"It's Blitzkrieg," Burton said, "it's definitely Blitzkrieg," the entire US command were at the meeting with Tsunade, Christine and Shizune along with Shikaku Nara as Jonin commander, and the rest of the military council.

"Blitz what?" Shikaku asked.

"Blitzkrieg, it means lightning war, basically an army attacks a place for example and continues on the warpath without resting the idea being that because they are continuously attacking the enemy has no time to mount a proper defence. This seems to be the case here as they caught dozens of shinobi villages by surprise and systematically attack them without mercy," Burton explained.

"So they've already got a foothold in this war," Inoichi said, "this is bad."

"We need to stop their advances if they ever come into Konoha," Shikaku said, "they cannot be allowed to enter the Land of Fire."

"Wouldn't it be more efficient if you shinobis forge an alliance? You do have a common enemy now if the Saika Faction is hellbent on getting rid of you shinobis," Catherine suggested.

The military council became uncomfortable with that as they seemed to not want to give an answer, it was Tsunade who answered for them, "Although it is true that we now have a common enemy between us, it's still hard for us to actually form an alliance. We have centuries of distrust, bloodshed, and betrayal to take account into, it would be hard for us trust one another yet alone fighting side-by-side."

"United we shall stand, divided we shall fall," Catherine quoted, "if you don't stand up together then no matter how strong one village is eventually that village will fall and then it would be the end of the shinobi era."

"There's still been no word whether the other five great nations have been attacked yet," Shikaku said, "so far they've only been taking smaller nations."

"Of course they would," Burton said, "but once they've exhausted all the other nations then they'll turn their attention on the other bigger nations."

"So what do you propose we do?" Shikaku asked as the US commanders thought about it.

"One suggestion is to have nearby nations allied with Konoha, expand your borders, after that we should think about having a more deeper alliance with Sunakagure," Burton said, "meanwhile we the US will continue repelling any Saika incursions as well as speed up our research on various technologies and weaponry. I can't say for certain if we would be able to teach you shinobis how to fire a gun."

"No, most I believe will want to stick to traditional methods, we're stubborn that way," Shikaku said with a small smirk.

"But the suggestion for an alliance is a sound one," Tsunade said, "we've had several shinobi lands asking us for an alliance, perhaps it's time that we took them seriously."

"You want to forge an alliance with those nations? Can they be trusted though?" Inoichi asked.

"It's not a matter of trust, but a matter of survival, if we don't begin working together then eventually the Saika faction will just overrun us," Shikaku said.

"Wise words commander," Burton said.

"How do you propose you defend the Konoha borders then? Even with a vast army like yours it would still be hard to defend all the entry points," Catherine asked.

"We'll station men in key entry points, those that are important and if taken can prove to be a problem for us," Burton said, "we might also need the aid of Konoha shinobis for the layout and terrain so we can position our men strategically. Of course our air force will be on stand by and ready to move out, not sure how we can utilize our naval forces though as there aren't any places where we can place them."

"For now the air force and ground troops are enough," Shikaku said, "we'll continue to improve the strategy as time goes. Hopefully the Saika Faction won't try anything against Konoha."

"What about Suna? Will they need assistance?" Burton asked.

"My opinion is yes, however if we pre-empt that and send shinobis to them it could easily be interpreted as an act of war," Tsunade said.

"What!" Burton exclaimed, "That's ridiculous."

"That's how it is in this world, so until we have an official request for help we cannot do anything, though I doubt they actually need our help, their desert terrain will make it difficult for the Saika Faction to get to the village in the first place. Plus they're pretty good in desert terrain, however like I said we'll just have to wait and see," Tsunade explained.

"Well for now we'll follow that strategy, let's hope that this crisis is quickly resolved," Burton said.

Meanwhile in the village things were semi-calm, the news that the Saika Faction were quickly ravaging the land spread like wildfire, most were calm as they believed that they would not attack the bigger nations. However there were some who were panicking and demanding that Konoha pre-emptively strike at the Saika Faction before they get a chance to strike at them. There was now a massive debate amongst the civilian population about what to do while the shinobis were trying to keep calm, not easy when you have a civilian population that was threatening to spill over, the argument quickly ceased when the US soldiers came in to disperse the crowd telling them to go home and await further updates on the situation. Not wanting to upset the only faction capable of going toe-to-toe with the new threat even the most hardcore dissidents quickly went back to their original business as both divisions sighed in relief, "That could have gone pretty badly," Asuma admitted, "they were both ready to fight each other."

"Can't be helped," Alex said, "this is a pretty serious situation, aren't you the least bit afraid?"

"Hell yeah," Asuma said, "but at least I know how to keep my cool."

"What do you think is going to happen? Are they going to retaliate?" a soldier asked.

"For the previous incursion? I don't think so, it's better if we don't waste our resources unless necessary," another replied, "besides…they'll have a tough time getting their armoured division across the forest area."

"That goes the same for us," the first soldier countered.

"Yeah, but we can blast them with bombers before they even get half way towards Konoha," the second replied back.

"Hey Alex-niisan!" Nartuo called out as Alex turned to Naruto as the boy skidded to a halt, "Is it true we're going to war?"

"Not quite," Alex said, "we're just preparing to defend ourselves if something happens."

"Oh…I thought John-niisan and everyone else was going to fight," Naruto said as Alex patted his head.

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll deal with anyone that tries to attack you," he said as Alex then left with the soldiers leaving Naruto wondering if Konoha would really be okay with the new threat and the storms that would be accompanying it. The coming days were spent forging alliances with the nearby shinobi villages, consolidating their borders and placing men at key strategic points, they had agreed that it would be best to only defend their borders unless Suna asks for help. Although this didn't sit well with the US military they couldn't do much about it so they accepted it, right now John was at one of the passes as he yawned, it was a quiet assignment as the shinobis admitted that there was little chances that anyone would know this path, however they were being cautious and thus they were guarding this pass at this moment.

There were several snipers already in position to take down anyone that tries to get through, it was perfect because they were able to put a barricade at the exit of the pass, and because it was narrow it would enable them to shoot anyone that tried to pass the narrow path. They also put some tanks there as a buffer of sorts, assured that the heavy armour would be more then enough to fend off any bullets that would be surely shooting back at them. And that is where one Lieutenant Ronald Spiers found himself at, commanding a small retinue of men protecting the pass from any incursions from the Saika Faction.

"Lieutenant all the armoured tanks are in position and we have snipers guarding the pass," a soldier reported.

"Good work," Ronald said, "hopefully we shouldn't have any problems here," as the soldier saluted and got back to his own men as the shinobis were scouting ahead to see if there were any immediate threats in the area. Ronald grabbed his binocular and did his own little scouting, from what he could see there were nothing that indicated hostiles approaching them as he sighed, that was good at least. He then went to check on the equipment before getting something to eat, about a few hours later the shinobis came back with no news about any incoming attack, Ronald was starting to feel that this assignment might not be so bad after all.

However as always Lady Luck was bi-polar and her mood could shift quickly as one of his men alerted him to movements at the entrance of the pass as he grabbed his binocular as he saw a column of tanks approaching them. It was a sizeable force, around 10 armoured units and a platoon of infantry troops, the defensive forces immediately went into action as they got into their positions. Anti-tank weapons were brought out and primed, ready to fire, as the enemy tanks continued to roll in, "How the hell did they get past you guys?" Ronald asked.

"I-I have no idea," the shinobi said equally surprised, "we did two rounds of scouting and saw nothing that would indicate there would be an attack."

"Well I'm pretty sure they don't have technology that can make things invisible, hell even _we_ don't have it," Ronald said.

"Five minutes!" a soldier cried out.

"Five minutes before what?" the shinobi asked.

"Five minutes before they start shooting at us," Ronald said as he grabbed his carbine and got into position, "how's the anti-tank looking?"

"All Javelins armed and primed sir," a soldier reported.

"Fire only if you have a clear line of sight, don't waste any ammos," Ronald ordered, "try to box them in and then finish them in one go."

"Sir!" the soldiers crowed as they waited for the enemy tanks to approach them, but then just at the entrance they stopped and stood there as Ronald looked at them, trying to decipher what they were trying to do. It seemed that they didn't want to engage the defence forces just yet, were they waiting for reinforcements before attacking them? Or were they waiting for something else?

Robert turned to his men, "Alright I need a squad to go and investigate what those guys are doing, I don't like it that they're just sitting there not engaging us, use cover to make sure that you're not spotted," he said.

"I'll go," Sergeant Randwell said as his men got up.

"Alright be careful Sergeant," Robert said as Randwell went out of cover as they made sure to use cover and hiding places to inch closer to where the Saika Faction was. So far they hadn't spotted them as they seemed to be preoccupied with something else, Randwell went closer as he could hear a conversation taking place between two soldiers.

"Man...those tanks are much bigger then I thought they would be," soldier A said.

"Yeah, I heard that just a few of them managed to smash the vanguard heading towards Konoha," soldier B replied with a sigh, "what are we even doing here?"

"Don't know, I mean...they didn't give us much information other then to go here and stay here without attacking the enemy, and let's face it who would?"

"I heard that it's some sort of tactic...you know a really smart tactic."

"You hear too many things, just make sure you update the commander on what the enemy is doing and make sure you stay out of their range…I hear that they have weapons that can fire more bullets then we can and I don't want to test them out."

"Yeah sure," soldier A said as the second soldier left his comrade as Randwell signalled his men to silently go back, they didn't get much information but at the very least Randwell knew that they were _planning_ something. As Randwell turned to leave when he snapped a twig, the sound echoed over the silent place as the soldier turned.

"Hey! We got intruders!" he cried out before firing a shot as it hit a tree as Randwell ducked behind some cover as the Saika Faction began to retaliate.

"Move, move, move!" Randwell said as he ran from cover to cover, avoiding the gunshots that were flying over their heads, he had run away from enemy fire before but for once he was glad that they had only muskets meaning that there was less chance of getting hit. Though their accuracy was kind of average, just what you expect of a militia unit as his legs burned, but he continued to run on as he couldn't afford to get shot here, they could swarm them if one helped the other as much as he hated to admit it.

"You won't pass," a female voice said as the squad stopped as they were confronted by a girl with long black hair and porcelain white skin wearing a purple armor with mesh beneath it, "I won't allow you to pass…"

"Ah shit you gotta be kidding me," Randwell muttered as more of the Saika Faction began closing in on them, "we don't have time for this," as he aimed his carbine at her, "sorry kid but you have three seconds to move or I will fire."

"Not if I disarm you," the girl said as she whipped out a red gun and began firing at the soldiers as they ducked down as there weren't any cover available, "surrender now…I don't want to hurt you."

"Says the girl with a gun," Randwell said returning fire as the girl jumped high as she fired a volley at the soldiers as none of them hit them, but it did manage to box them in. Soon the Saika Faction got them surrounded, "Damn it…"

"Please surrender, I don't want to hurt you," the girl said in a monotone voice as she aimed the gun at Randwell.

"Dynamic…Entry!" came a cry before a blur of green kicked the soldiers away from them and down into the pass, where no doubt they would die from the impact as Randwell felt sorry for them, "Hmph…are you guys okay?" Might Guy asked posing his usual pose as the soldiers sweatdropped.

"Y-yeah we're good, thanks Guy," Randwell said.

"Anytime, now quickly run while I cover you," Guy said.

"You sure?"

"Certain, although I might not like hitting a woman, but if it's an enemy…I won't show any mercy," as Randwell nodded and ordered his men to escape as the girl went to intercept them, but Guy stood in her way. "Now…what's your name?"

"Maya…Maya Saika," Maya replied, "please move…I must capture all enemy soldiers."

"Oh? And not us shinobis?" Guy asked.

"We have deemed you too weak and useless, but the soldiers…they might have some useful information," Maya replied.

"What an unyouthful answer," Guy said, "I'll show you just how youthful we shinobis are," as he dashed towards Maya as he tried to do a roundhouse kick to her head as she ducked underneath and fired a shot which went wild. Guy then flipped back dodging the attack before he appeared behind Maya and kicked her in the back sending her to the ground before quickly recovering and followed with a punch. But then he found that his punch was blocked by a scythe, which Maya had somehow produced, "Oh? And where did this come from?"

"Guess," Maya said as her fingers curled around something as Guy's eyes widened as he quickly ducked just before a loud bang echoed as he rolled to the ground, "lucky…" as she continued firing shots after shots as Guy dodged them. He was perhaps one of the fastest shinobis because of his legwork, seeing as how he is a Taijutsu expert, but even then he could feel that he was running out of luck as the bullets continue to assail him. Maya then fired a dry clip, "Damn," she cursed as she fumbled for the magazine.

Guy saw his chance as he dashed towards Maya as he then proceeded to kick her before kicking her into the ground, "Konoha…Senpu!" Guy called out as Maya cursed as she shakily got up.

"Must retreat," Maya said as she took out a smoke bomb, which covered her retreat as Guy looked on.

"Hmm…she was quite fast, but yet weak…I wonder if she was just holding back?" he asked himself as he decided to go back to the defence force and inform the situation to the officers over there.

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**So one of the officers for the Saika Faction has shown herself, there would be lots more enemies for the US and shinobi alliance to fight. Also I might not be able to post the next chapter for a while as I have a major assignment to work, but please be patient with me and I'll do my best. As always I appreciate any reviews you guys can give me. Until then.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi sorry for the long wait everyone. I had university and then I lost muse for a while on this story and worked on other stories that took my attention. I hope you guys enjoy this one.**

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"This is the USS Patriot, all ships please sound off," Admiral Lacone, leader of the US Aircraft Carrier Patriot, said as the surrounding ships sound off indicating that all was well. Although the Saika Faction did not seem to have any naval forces, one couldn't be too careful especially in an unpredictable world like the one that they inhabit right now. And even more so because of the mission that they had been assigned to do, as he went to the briefing room to brief the marines that would be completing the mission. "Alright gentlemen here's the situation," Lacone said as the lights were shut off and a projector was turned on as it showed an island, "we've received information from an ally that this island is being occupied by the Saika Faction. We don't know what they're doing on that island, but we can assume that they're trying to build a forward base that would allow them to strike anywhere around this part of the sea. Therefore we're going to send in a marine force to investigate this, and if necessary neutralise the forward base, they will be supported by naval bombardment and air support."

"Are we expecting any armoured division on that island?" one of the marine officers asked.

"We believe not, however be prepared for anything, if you see any armoured tanks in the area then return back and we'll commence bombardment of the area," Lacone said, "any other questions?" When there were no other questions they were dismissed as the marines got ready to land on the island, there were no indications that the island had been fitted with defensive equipment or structures. A platoon of 45 marines, led by Second Lieutenant Adam Bates, landed on the island with weapons hot as Adam personally led the platoon.

"Heya Adam," First Sergeant Norman Diaz said, "finally get some action hey?" Norman was Adam's friend, they joined the Marine Corps together and they were practically inseparable; this led to Norman being second-in-command of whatever platoon Adam is leading.

"Yep, it's a good day today," Adam said with a smile as he patted his friend on the shoulder, "I need you to take two fireteams and flank them, start going around the island and see if you can find some sort of advantage point where you can lay down some support fire. Bring the mortars with you and a M249 and once we start taking heat from the Saikas rain hell on them."

"Roger that," Norman said, "you got your ass covered," he said, "alright squad Delta, Alpha and Fema with me, rest of you follow the lieutenant," as the said squads got up and followed Norman.

"Alright, let's go men, keep your eyes peeled don't know what to expect with the Saikas," Adam said as the remaining men began approaching the forward base as Adam kept an eye out for ambushes or defensive positions, the island was full of dense foliage and trees which made perfect places for ambushes or hidden defensive positions as the marines made sure to stay quiet.

The element of surprise would be a key advantage for them, if they lost that then they would be in a battle for attrition, as one of the marines then loudly cursed when he fell forward when he tripped on the branch. There was a moment of silence as the marines waited for that dreaded gunshot that would signify they had been discovered, but nothing like that occurred as they breath a sigh of relief, "Be careful," Adam said as the marine nodded.

Finally they managed to get to the base undetected, they must have not been expecting the marines to arrive though how they did not see the naval ships stationed outside of the island defied belief. "Sir what happen if we do find the forward base?" one of the marines asked.

"Well we'll investigate and make the necessary assessment," Adam said, "and if possible we'll try to neutralise it before they get a chance to get it up and running." At that moment Adam's radio chimed in as he took it out.

"Lieutenant we're at a vantage point, I'm seeing the base right now and they're pretty dug in, they've got riflemen stationed at the entrance so they'll definitely see you if you try to take them head on, there seems to be no place to flank them, so a straight up assault is your only way in," Norman reported.

"Damn," Adam cursed, "what's the hostile strength?"

"At estimation around 35, a platoon, but no armoured vehicles in sight," as Adam breath a sigh of relief, no armoured vehicles meant not tanks, which would make this a bit easier. "Do you want me to start bombing them? Maybe we should call in air support."

"That's unnecessary, you have the mortars right? I think if we use it to take out the defensive troops then we can rout them long before they manage to get any kind of counter attack," Adam said.

"You sure about this?"

"Certain, we got the element of surprise here, they're not prepared for us. I think we can do this."

"Alright…I guess we'll find out soon enough," as they waited for the sound of exploding shells that would signal the start of the assault. Sure enough the sound of explosions soon echoed along with the cries of surprise and pain as the US troops began their assault, shooting anything that moved in front of them as the Saika Factions were thrown into disarray by the sudden assault, they managed to penetrate through the front entrance as the continuous bombardments of the mortars covered them and forced the Saika Faction to fall back. Other then the mortars there were also the machine gun fire as the rapid sound of machine guns firing echoed in unison with the sounds of assault rifles as they continued to drive the Saika Faction back completely routing their preliminary forces.

"This is almost too easy," one of the soldiers commented as the Saika Faction riflemen began to take cover and shoot back as it became a true fire fight as shots were traded left and right, as Adam pulled the pin on his grenade before throwing it as it exploded and took out three riflemen. The US marines were gaining ground before one of the buildings opened up and revealed a heavily armoured infantry with what seemed to be a Gatling gun though minituraized as it fired a swath of bullets at the US marines, "holy shit!" one of them exclaimed.

"Goddamn it they have a Gatling gun? Seriously?" Adam exclaimed back as even explosives didn't seem to faze the man as the tables were now turned as the US forces were retreating from the onslaught of the Gatling gun as even under the suppressive fire of the second team they were still forced to retreat. "I need someone with anti-tank weapon, I don't think anything less is going to cut it," Adam yelled.

"I got a Javelin with me," one of the soldier said as he quickly brought it around, but he wasn't able to fire the missile because of the Gatling gun fire as he had to duck each time it swung towards him.

"Cover him," Adam yelled as the rest of the marines popped up from their cover and draw the attention of the gunner while the soldier aimed and fired as the missile flew towards the gunner as it impacted on him as he was sent flying and didn't move. "Damn that was close," Adam sighed as Norman and his team met up with him.

"You alright?" Norman asked as Adam nodded, "That was pretty close, thank goodness for the Javelin."

"More gunners!" as the two of them turned to see several of the Gatling gunners approaching them bringing a complete wall of destruction as they ducked for cover.

"We need to call in air support," Norman said as Adam nodded as he grabbed his radio.

"This is Echo Team requesting air support immediately! We are under heavy attack. I repeat we need air support pronto!"

"Roger that Echo Team, stand by," the operator said as meanwhile on the USS Patriot several Super Hornets were primed for launch, ready to assist the ground troops when called for, within minutes all five of them were in the air as they sped towards the island.

"This is Strike Team Alpha we've sighed the gunners do we have a green light?" the Hornet commander asked.

"You are clear Strike Team Alpha, light them up," as the Hornets primed their air-to-surface AGM-65 Maverick missiles before firing them on the gunners as the gunners, and anyone else supporting them were wiped out by the missiles.

"Echo Team you are to retreat back to the Patriot, you've completed your mission, I repeat mission is accomplished you are to retreat ASAP," the operator said.

"Sweet words to my ears command," Adam said, "alright all units retreat we're out of here," he said as the marines couldn't run fast enough to their boats before returning back to the Patriot for some much needed rest.

After the mission was completed Tsunade, and all the other military officials, were in another meeting discussing the situation, "Nami Island has already been occupied by the Saika Faction, that's a strategic island where they can launch any number of attacks on our allies…this is a serious matter," she said.

"Well yes, but the US forces plan on wiping them all out and then occupying the island for themselves, hopefully that will also allow us a place to launch any attacks on the Saika Faction if that is the case," one of the Jounin said.

"It also seems that the US forces faced difficulty with one of the Saika Faction units, it seemed that they've upgraded their forces," Tsunade commented flippantly.

"W-well yes, but from what I've heard they managed to fix that problem," the Jounin replied nervously.

"But what if the Saika Faction has other equipment and weapons that proves to be more advantageous against the US forces…at least without _certain_ weapons," as the council knew what she was on about.

"Hokage-sama if you are referring to our ban on them knowing about chakra then I highly suggest-" as a chair crashed against the wall as a fuming Tsunade stood up with a furious face on her.

"I don't give a damn anymore about what you all suggest, this operation could have turned into a disaster, this operation clearly shows that we require the US forces help and that if they have better equipment that is currently being tested then we need them and if that means giving them access to chakra information then so be it. I will not let this country fall because some idiots think that the US forces will backstab us in the back when we're not looking!" Tsunade explained carefully and slowly as they could all feel the killing intent coming from her as they gulped and looked down.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi said as Tsunade glared at him, "since you've decided that should I give the good news to the doctor?" he asked with his usual smile as Tsunade growled, "I'll take that as a yes," as he quickly shunshined away to a safer location. _Man…that woman sure has one hell of a temper_ Kakashi thought to himself as he looked up to the sky, _looks like the war's heating up…I wonder if we're going to be alright_ as he hoped that whatever new weapons that the US forces could make, it better be strong enough to fight back against the Saika Faction since he heard rumours that the Land of Lightning was under heavy pressure from them and that they were losing ground. And if the Land of Lightning was having a hard time fighting back against the Saika Factions then it could mean that they would have a hard time fighting back as well.

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**Sorry that it's a short chapter, didn't know how else I could extend it. Also I'm open to ideas on what kind of experimental equipments that the US forces should use now that the war is going to go in full swing, just PM me on your ideas or leave it in your review. Would appreciate any kind of ideas, again the next chapter might take a while cause of above reasons. But stay tuned for the next chapter.**


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